Technology has transformed the way we communicate. Email, SMS, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, MySpace, and other forms of  communications have allowed people who would not have “met” ten years ago to develop social relationships.

We get many great emails from people every day thanking us for what we do. Those emails put huge smiles on the faces of our entire team. We feel good when we learn that in some small way, we’ve helped another person.

Yesterday, we received a postcard and a handwritten note from a creative who works on crowdSPRING – Audree Rowe. It’s a wonderful note and a great postcard. We posted it on our refrigerator door.

Our team was really moved that Audree took a few minutes to send us her kind note. It’s pretty amazing that a little handwritten note can be so powerful.

We are very fortunate at crowdSPRING. We love our community.

[I asked Audree if we can share her note here and she graciously agreed.]

What a difference a year makes!  We’ve had a pretty amazing year here at crowdSPRING – we’ve seen some amazing company’s making the switch to the crowdsourcing platform, we’ve paid out $2.5 million in awards to our more than 40,000 creatives and we’ve expanded our office personnel.  We’re feeling pretty darn loved and lucky and because of that, we want to share the love! We really appreciate everyone and everything you guys are doing and have done and to show our appreciation we are pleased to announce the inauguration of our annual Springy Awards! These awards will take place at the end of each year and include four different categories for you to win:

Most Winningest Designer of the Year - The word may be made up but it’s the only word that’s able to capture how much you do for us as designers. crowdSPRING will award the designer who won the most projects this year.

The Community Award – This is awarded to the designer who contributes the most to our crowdSPRING community, whether it’s through the blog, our forum or feedback on projects themselves – we appreciate your mouthiness.

And here’s where you guys come in – the following are crowdSPRING’s People’s Choice Awards:

crowdSPRING Buyers:
Speak up!  We need you to nominate the designer you think deserves the Frenchie Award, named after our French customer service representative, Jerome. This is awarded to the designer that demonstrated their own customer service to their potential client – the designer that gave the most and best feedback.

crowdSPRING Designers:
It’s your turn to speak up and nominate the buyer you think deserves the Buyer of the Year award, which is given to the buyer who you love working with the most.

If you are a creative or a buyer in the crowdSPRING community or even just a friend of one, we would love to hear your nominations to find the best buyers and creatives that deserve an award this year (don’t be afraid to nominate yourself! We’ll never tell.)

Please submit your nominations no later than November 20, 2009 to springy@crowdspring.com.

Simply email us the crowdSPRING username of your nominee and a quick reason why you believe they should win the award. Put the award you’re nominating for in the subject line of the email.

The Winners will get a special crowdSPRING winners package complete with award!

In these recessionary times, all of us who operate startups and small businesses struggle to meet our bottom line, pay our monthly bills, retain our great employees, and grow our businesses in spite of the challenges presented. What to do, what to do? Well, one time-proven marketing strategy that increases customer lifetime value, cements loyalty, and drives word of mouth, is simply doing what your mom tried to teach you to do always: say “thank you.” It is a truism that it costs more to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one, and this simple strategy goes a long way towards this.

According to a survey of small businesses by American Express, only one third of businesses gave year-end bonuses or gifts to their employees last year, down more than 10% over the prior two years. Recession, ugh. Yet many small businesses continue to build customer loyalty and increase sales by giving gifts to their customers. The gifts can be anything from swag like tee shirts and coffee mugs, to discounted services or merchandise. Studies show that this works, and the credit card industry is a good example of this. For instance, in a study by the consulting firm Maritz, credit card holders who participated in loyalty programs increased their number of transactions by 53 percent and the value of  those transactions by 51 percent!

How can your business say thank you to your customers? Experiment. That’s right – try lots of different things to see what works best. Try a loyalty program; my local pizza place does it – every time I go in they stamp my card. Ten stamps and I get a free pizza. Yum. Or try an A/B test: offer one group of your customers a discount on their next purchase, and offer the another group a tee shirt. Then track the results – which group came back more often and spent more money? Or try a different experiment; offer some customers a gift card for a successful referral of a new customer and an equal number a small cash bonus. Which group responds best? The answer to this question could define your strategy for your next round of “thank-yous.”

Here are a few tips for thinking through your approach to gifting your customers:

• Segment. Look hard at your customer base and consider what type of incentive might be valuable to what type of customer.
• Communicate. Ask for feedback when you give a gift or say your thank you. If you ask them what they like and why, many of them will actually answer you.
• Analyze. Don’t just send out gifts without paying attention to the results. Track the data and be ready to dispense with the gifting that doesn’t work and beef up that which does.
• Get buy-in. Make sure that all of your key departments or employees are involved, from the front-line customer service folk to the marketing and sales departments.
• Provide value. If you are looking for insight into hat makes your customers tick and what increases their lifetime value, only they can tell you. And they will only tell you if the thank you provided is of value to them.
• ROI. Make sure that the payouts you are offering are generating more than the cost. It would be silly to offer every customer a $100 gift card if the increased value of that customer were only $50. Be careful here and make sure you end up profiting on these efforts.

So, dangle the carrots and see if they nibble. And, like mom said, “Be polite. Or I’ll smack you.”

Photo credit: Michael Newman

“The worst crime against working people is a company which fails to operate at a profit.” ~ Samuel Gompers 

Most of our posts on the crowdSPRING Blog focus on managing businesses and startups; we often write about best practices, and offer plenty of practical tips for managers. Today is a little different, because in the US, today is Labor Day. Every year on the first Monday in September, we celebrate workers and everything they do for our country and our economy. Parades are held, speeches are given, and workers across the country take an extra day’s rest from their labors to picnic, play with their kids, and (often) shop the sales that businesses love to offer on the last official day of summer.

Samuel Gompers, (see his quote above) was an early leader of the 19th-century labor movement in the US, had it right: businesses owners and managers have a distinct and profound responsibility to the people who work for us. It is incumbent on management to create and sustain an environment that leads to hiring, encourages quality work, rewards effort and accomplishment, treats workers fairly, pays an equitable wage, provides for basic welfare, respects families, supplies adequate work flexibility, and, importantly, celebrates the work itself.

As part of this, I also think it is important to say thank you to your workers as often as you possibly can – without them you have no business being in business. So, I want to thank our team here at crowdSPRING – for their hard work, for their collegiality, and for the fun we have together every day. To do this well, I am taking a few minutes to write an appreciation for each member of our team. Thanks, guys!

John (Shuo) Yang is our Senior Software engineer and one of the smartest people I have ever met. It took me a bit to realize this, because until you get to know him, John tends to be kinda quiet; he listens, he synthesizes, he analyzes and then he acts. Always productive and efficient, John gets things done in a way that doesn’t call attention to himself, but rather to the work product itself. He can be bitingly (though subtly) funny, and I have never seen such a relatively small person eat such massive quantities of lunch. Thanks, John!

Chris Detmer is our UI Developer (the guy who codes and polishes the user-facing parts of the site) and has been with cS longer than any other employee. Chris first came aboard as a consultant back when we were building the site in 2007 and became employee #2 in January 2008, 3 months before we launched. Chris is focused, loyal, flexible, and kind to everyone around him. Not to mention that he is a talented composer, musician, and performer. Plus he likes Legos. Thanks, Chris!

Adriano Marques is our wonderful Brazilian Software Engineer, recently immigrated to the US. He is one of the most dedicated and hardest working people I have ever known and also one of the most caring people around. He is always ready to jump in to help solve a problem or fix a bug, but he is also keenly focused on the big picture and is constantly working to strengthen our site and streamline our product. He is strongly opinionated, but in such a sweet and non-confrontational way that you wouldn’t even know it was the case. Thanks, Adriano!

Diogenes Herminio works for us as a Software Engineer, but does it from his home in Brazil. Diogenes has worked hard in his short time with us to learn the complexities of our software and has successfully mastered that complexity and made some meaningful contributions to the company. He is always there (on Skype) with a smile and a kind word, and his talent grows every day. Thanks, Diogenes!

Audree Rowe Started as an experiment. A successful crowdSPRING, Audree approached us one day and asked to come work for us directly. She had this crazy idea that someone who had actually worked on the site, might provide value and insight to the community that we couldn’t give ourselves. Well, Audree was right – from her first days as our Community Liaison, she has provided help, comfort, advice and expertise to both Creatives and Buyers on the site. She is as knowledgable about our business and our community as anyone and she does her job with as much grace and good humor as I have seen in 30 years in management. All that and she also has a beautiful family! Thanks, Audree!

Bianca Jayanty is more to us than just a “Customer Service Wonder Gal.” She is a tough, funny, sharp individual who gives her total effort to everything she does. She is one of the fastest learners I have ever worked with, and she is never afraid to try something different, develop a new skill, or put herself in an unfamiliar situation. As a matter of fact, as I write this, Bianca is traveling with her sisters (did I mention that Bianca is a triplet?!) in Cambodia, exploring temples, caves, and unusual foods that I can’t wait to hear about. I might also mention that she is a budding stand-up comic working the mic at clubs in Chicago and San Francisco. Cool. Thanks, Bianca!

Dylan Samson started his life at crowdSPRING filing the paid bills and other boring paperwork into folders and drawers. He did it so well and with such a smile on his face, that we started adding on more responsibilities, ultimately putting him in charge of our IP violations process. From scratch, Dylan designed a new system and a new process that helps us to deliver a fast, fair, and and friendly method that allows us to keep our promise to the community to respect and protect their intellectual property. He is friendly, efficient, and always ready to help his team in delivering great customer service. Not to mention that he has a scary knowledge of music old and new and is the Music Director and DJs a fantastic show on WIUX, FM! Thanks, Dylan!

Amanda Werner is a freaking Valedictorian of her college class and helps out around here with marketing and PR. If you are fortunate enough to receive those cS discount offers in your email, it is becaue of Amanda’s hard work. And if you are interested in some of the small businesses that post their projects on crowdSPRING, then you have probably read her weekly “Small Business Spotlight” columns in our blog. Amanda is from Minnesota, which means she is good, smart, and above average in all respects! She also is a cook who is always ready to discuss what we each made for dinner last night and even (on occasion) will let me taste her leftovers at lunch. Thanks, Amanda!

Giuseppe Ribaudo joined us last winter as a Customer Service agent and has shone since day 1! He is an actor who appears in productions at theaters around Chicago and is always ready to discuss so-and-so’s [erformance in a movie we’ve recently seen. He is a generous and thoughtful person and this manifests in the dozens of conversations he has with our users every day. He also speaks Italian and is an accomplished quilter! How cool is that? Thanks, Giuseppe!

Heather Appleman (AKA, “Red Velvet”) came to us via Austin, Texas to become a mainstay of our Customer Service team. She is so reliable that she will sometimes text me to let me know that, for instance, her subway train is on fire and she has to help rescue some people so she may be 2-3 minutes late starting her shift. Seriously. I kid you not. Heather is as steady and responsible as they come – always friendly, ever-smiling, and an attentive presence on our Help Desk who users have come to count on to get speedy and accurate answers to their questions. Heather is currently studying film-making and we look forward to saying that we knew her when… Thanks, Heather!

Brittany Williams is a rock. She indeed a Wonder Girl in our support team and is a person you can count on to be unflappable, calm, and levelheaded no matter what the emergency. Brittany is a wonderful writer and film-maker and is working to establish herself as a producer and production manager. She has a quick and easy smile and an amazing ability to make people feel comfortable and cared for. Thanks, Brittany!

Diego Frausto has the ability to deliver customer service in multiple languages and with equal charm in each! Diego is a full-time student at Loyola University studying business and marketing and has the ability distill complex ideas into simple sentences that any customer can understand. I sometimes read his help desk tickets just to remind myself how effective email support, when done right, can be. Diego is a world traveler and has promised to one day invite us all to his family’s ranch in Mexico! Thanks, Diego!

A couple other folks work with us a great deal as contractors or vendors and they, too, deserve a special thanks: Kona Horler has been doing our books, managing our accounts, and generally lifting our spirits for more than 2 years now; Marko Bijelic is a talented web designer in Bosnia and Herzogovina who helps us maintain the look and feel of the site and contributes every day to our user’s experience on crowdSPRING; Lauren Russ has been handling our PR for the last 3 years and it is because of her efforts that we have been so fortunate to grace the pages of some of the most important media outlets in the world.

Photo – Labor Day New York 1882 Wikimedia

Holidays are upon us, folks and it’s time to give thanks. every business large and small owes a debt to those who have helped over the year and there is no better time to gift than now: your investors and lenders deserve a note, a bottle of wine or other small token to show your appreciation  for their trust, their support, and (hopefully) their advice.

Your employees deserve thanks for their hard work, their productivity, their energy, and their all around contribution to your success. Typically this form of thanks might include a year-end bonus, a holiday bash, and some little swag, maybe a company tee shirt, pin, or jacket. Hey, even a company-branded Gulfstream may be appropriate for some od you out there!

Finally your customers. Ah yes, them. Without this group of people, your business would have no business being in business. How to thank them? Lots of ways great and small and the ideas are endless: for companies with a relatively smaller customer base, you might shoot them a card, send them a small gift, or even invite them down to your company party. For larger companies an email is probably in order, but a little gifty can be nice, too.

One solution that many companies turn to when thanking their customers for their all-important support? Discounts, baby! Airlines offer additional miles to frequent travelers; hotels send out lists of marked down rooms at posh resorts; restaurants will often sell discounted gift cards; car companies inundate us with end-of year offers typically accompanied by shiny bright, ribbon-festooned models.

What you do for your customers is up to you, but consider using coupons and price reductions as a dual-purpose strategy. First, what better way to say thank you then to reduce or even exclude your margin on something that they would purchase anyway? Secondly, why not find ways to increase sales, cement loyalty, and spread-word-of-mouth at the same time? Couponing is a great way to do this, because it is in your control, allows you to gather valuable data, can increase traffic to your store or website, and helps to develop the all-important relationships that businesses and their customers desperately need.

Here are a few ways you can use coupon discounts to reach your customers and deliver that valuable “Thank You!”

1. Via email.

Mailchimp, Constant Contact, JangoMail and the like make it easy to create and manage email  campaigns and special Thank You’s can be sent using any of these or other services. Import your list, modify one of their templates (or create your own design), input your content, and away it goes, delivered to your customer’s virtual doorstep through the internet tubes. An added advantage of using email campaigns to say thanks is the data you’ll receive in return. These services allow you to look at customer behavior that can help when you send your next mailing: you’ll easily view how many of the recipients opened that email, hw many of them clicked through y=to your site, and how many of them actually took you up on the offer. You can easily add tags such that data can be tracked using Google Analytics; you can A/B split your mailing to test different subject lines or different customer segments to gauge  performance; and you can better understand your customers and what maked them tick.

2. Via the Post Office.

For companies dependent on local customers (talking to you Mom & Pop retail store) the US Post Office offers a fantastic product that allows you to target customers (existing or potential) via their zip codes, their streets, or their addresses at a very low cost. For as little as 15¢ via the USPS Every Door Direct Mail service, you can send them a postcard segmented by age, household income, or household size. Your mailing can be tracked as it passes along it’s route and you’ll know exactly who received your coupon, when they received it and (if you plan your design and coding well) who redeemed your coupon and who did not. Naughty or nice, you’ll gain a better understanding of which content and what demographics are working for you to increase response rates on your next mailing.

3. On your site.

With a few simple lines of code, your dev team can generate pop-up or banner offers on your site that will deliver your gift to visitors when they arrive. This strategy can be as simple or sophisticated as you like. Returning customers can receive one offer while new visitors can be offered something different. Browser cookies and retargeting strategies work well to help understand who the visitor is, if they’ve bought from you before, even the frequency of their interactions and this can help you to segment visitors further allowing you to deliver the most special Thank You to the most special customer.

4. Pay-per-click

Google and the other search engines are invaluable resources for helping customers (especially new ones) find you. Well executed SEO/SEM campaigns can yield meaningful results, though be careful as it is not difficult for a business to spend more acquiring customers through these channels than those new customers might contribute to your bottom line.  PPC campaigns can also be used to deliver discounts to customers; create a campaign that offers anyone who finds you through the search results a coupon for the first (or next!) purchase whether that takes place on-line or off. Be sure to carefully code these offers so you can track whether the offer is effective in attracting sales, and whether customers are interested in or appreciative of the “thanks you” offered.

5. Circulars ads and promotions.

A circular is simply a leaflet or pamphlet that is distributed via mail, as an insert in a print publication, or directly at your place of business. The sheer number of  these that you find in your mailbox or when you open the Sunday paper will attest to their popularity as a marketing tool. Their efficacy is arguable and you may choose to distribute these only in your brick-and-mortar store as opposed to paying for distribution via a newspaper or through the mail. Circulars can be used to promote specific products or as a generic Thank You, and can be tracked using QR or other tracking codes to collect data on user behavior and conversion rates.

Image: Ticket for free glass of Coca-Cola, believed to be the first coupon ever, 1888, Wikimedia

Mom taught us well. She raised us to be polite and she raised us to consider other’s feelings. For many small business owners saying thanks to your team is a head-scratcher. Performance-based bonuses can be a powerful incentive for individuals, and profit-sharing plans can reward great teamwork, but saying thank you can and should rise above those. Besides, not every business can afford meaningful bonuses for the team and not every business has profits to share in the first place.

People (read, your team) have a very basic need to be appreciated. Simply saying, “Thank you” for a day’s work, for a solid accomplishment, or for a record of loyalty can go a long way towards job satisfaction and can act as a motivator by reinforcing the behaviors, productivity, and creativity that we all value so much. In fact, studies have shown measurable gains in productivity when positive interactions outweigh the negative ones. The scary thing is that a recent poll showed a very high percentage of workers reporting that they had not received a single affirmation for the good work they had done over the past year. Yikes.

So, small business manager can take simple steps in the way of “Thank You’s” that carry meaning, that are sincere and thoughtful, and that act as a reflection of the culture of the company. Affirming (with consistent regularity) the hard work and contribution each person makes to the team is the low-hanging fruit. Showing your love for your employees is never a bad idea, so here are 6 simple (and free to inexpensive) ideas for special occasions, or even for no occasion at all!

1. Say it! Stop at an employees desk. Sit down next to him. Smile to let him know that this visit is not about a project or a meeting or a deadline. Look him straight in the eye and say “Thank you.” That’s it. Done. (PS – this can also be done  at the lunch table or on the phone or in the elevator. Duh.)

2. Write it. Sadly, the art of the hand-written note is a dying one. Very few people take the time to write a card or  note even on the most appropriate occasions. So what better way to surprise and delight an employee than with something so simple, so unexpected ad a thoughtful, hand-written note or card telling them how much you appreciate something they did, something they learned, or simply that you appreciate having them on your team.

3. Surprise them at surprising times. Paying close attention to the people around you and listening to what they say can lead to wonderful moments to say thanks and these don’t have to be for someone’s birthday, or anniversary, or at the holidays. At any random time during the year, something as simple as a $25 gift certificate to a restaurant you heard a worker mention can show her not only that you appreciate what she does, but that you respect her as a person. People like to know that they are heard, whether the context is a meeting or a water-cooler discussion about great places to eat. Plus, people love surprises and when they receive a gift (even a tiny little one) at a time they wouldn’t normally expect one, the impact is magnified and the value of that thank-you is greatly increased.

4. Shout it out! Recognizing a team member in front of the rest of the team can be a powerful motivator and there are plenty of opportunities to do it. At crowdSPRING we have a bulletin board crowded with printouts of tweets and emails from our customers complimenting this or that team member  and when a new one arrives, the shout heard around the office is “Put it up on the board!” There are lots of other great venues for recognizing folks: a team meeting is a great time to give a shout out and tell the story of an individual to let everyone know about their big accomplishment or their stellar effort. If you publish a newsletter, this is also a wonderful way to acknowledge someone’s contribution.

5. Help them learn. People value opportunities for personal growth virtually as highly as they do monetary benefit. Google recognized this with their “20% time,” which allowed employees to take one day a week to work on side projects (with great results: Gmail being one). Everyone who works for you has their own hobbies and special interests  and these should be not just celebrated and shared, but you should enable your team to pursue what interests them. Training and development programs can also be a great way to say thanks while building capacity and skills for your company; sending your folks to conferences, seminars, and professional development courses go a very long way to showing how much you appreciate someone.

6. Do stuff together. Lastly, time together doing fun or interesting things is a great way to say thanks while providing the chance for team building and personal bonding. Do outings together, eat lunch together, share movies and books with each other, and plan time away from work where you can just have fun with the folks from work. At cS we have had events as different as company outings to a day at Lallapalooza to after-work beers, to movie nights in the home theater and to a team kayaking trip (the photo at the top of this post was taken this past September on the Chicago River at dusk!).

Technology has transformed the way we communicate. Email, SMS, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, MySpace, and other forms of  communications have allowed people who would not have “met” ten years ago to develop social relationships.

We get many great emails from people every day thanking us for what we do. Those emails put huge smiles on the faces of our entire team. We feel good when we learn that in some small way, we’ve helped another person.

Yesterday, we received a postcard and a handwritten note from a creative who works on crowdSPRING – Audree Rowe. It’s a wonderful note and a great postcard. We posted it on our refrigerator door.

Our team was really moved that Audree took a few minutes to send us her kind note. It’s pretty amazing that a little handwritten note can be so powerful.

We are very fortunate at crowdSPRING. We love our community.

[I asked Audree if we can share her note here and she graciously agreed.]

What a difference a year makes!  We’ve had a pretty amazing year here at crowdSPRING – we’ve seen some amazing company’s making the switch to the crowdsourcing platform, we’ve paid out $2.5 million in awards to our more than 40,000 creatives and we’ve expanded our office personnel.  We’re feeling pretty darn loved and lucky and because of that, we want to share the love! We really appreciate everyone and everything you guys are doing and have done and to show our appreciation we are pleased to announce the inauguration of our annual Springy Awards! These awards will take place at the end of each year and include four different categories for you to win:

Most Winningest Designer of the Year – The word may be made up but it’s the only word that’s able to capture how much you do for us as designers. crowdSPRING will award the designer who won the most projects this year.

The Community Award – This is awarded to the designer who contributes the most to our crowdSPRING community, whether it’s through the blog, our forum or feedback on projects themselves – we appreciate your mouthiness.

And here’s where you guys come in – the following are crowdSPRING’s People’s Choice Awards:

crowdSPRING Buyers:
Speak up!  We need you to nominate the designer you think deserves the Frenchie Award, named after our French customer service representative, Jerome. This is awarded to the designer that demonstrated their own customer service to their potential client – the designer that gave the most and best feedback.

crowdSPRING Designers:
It’s your turn to speak up and nominate the buyer you think deserves the Buyer of the Year award, which is given to the buyer who you love working with the most.

If you are a creative or a buyer in the crowdSPRING community or even just a friend of one, we would love to hear your nominations to find the best buyers and creatives that deserve an award this year (don’t be afraid to nominate yourself! We’ll never tell.)

Please submit your nominations no later than November 20, 2009 to springy@crowdspring.com.

Simply email us the crowdSPRING username of your nominee and a quick reason why you believe they should win the award. Put the award you’re nominating for in the subject line of the email.

The Winners will get a special crowdSPRING winners package complete with award!

In these recessionary times, all of us who operate startups and small businesses struggle to meet our bottom line, pay our monthly bills, retain our great employees, and grow our businesses in spite of the challenges presented. What to do, what to do? Well, one time-proven marketing strategy that increases customer lifetime value, cements loyalty, and drives word of mouth, is simply doing what your mom tried to teach you to do always: say “thank you.” It is a truism that it costs more to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one, and this simple strategy goes a long way towards this.

According to a survey of small businesses by American Express, only one third of businesses gave year-end bonuses or gifts to their employees last year, down more than 10% over the prior two years. Recession, ugh. Yet many small businesses continue to build customer loyalty and increase sales by giving gifts to their customers. The gifts can be anything from swag like tee shirts and coffee mugs, to discounted services or merchandise. Studies show that this works, and the credit card industry is a good example of this. For instance, in a study by the consulting firm Maritz, credit card holders who participated in loyalty programs increased their number of transactions by 53 percent and the value of  those transactions by 51 percent!

How can your business say thank you to your customers? Experiment. That’s right – try lots of different things to see what works best. Try a loyalty program; my local pizza place does it – every time I go in they stamp my card. Ten stamps and I get a free pizza. Yum. Or try an A/B test: offer one group of your customers a discount on their next purchase, and offer the another group a tee shirt. Then track the results – which group came back more often and spent more money? Or try a different experiment; offer some customers a gift card for a successful referral of a new customer and an equal number a small cash bonus. Which group responds best? The answer to this question could define your strategy for your next round of “thank-yous.”

Here are a few tips for thinking through your approach to gifting your customers:

• Segment. Look hard at your customer base and consider what type of incentive might be valuable to what type of customer.
• Communicate. Ask for feedback when you give a gift or say your thank you. If you ask them what they like and why, many of them will actually answer you.
• Analyze. Don’t just send out gifts without paying attention to the results. Track the data and be ready to dispense with the gifting that doesn’t work and beef up that which does.
• Get buy-in. Make sure that all of your key departments or employees are involved, from the front-line customer service folk to the marketing and sales departments.
• Provide value. If you are looking for insight into hat makes your customers tick and what increases their lifetime value, only they can tell you. And they will only tell you if the thank you provided is of value to them.
• ROI. Make sure that the payouts you are offering are generating more than the cost. It would be silly to offer every customer a $100 gift card if the increased value of that customer were only $50. Be careful here and make sure you end up profiting on these efforts.

So, dangle the carrots and see if they nibble. And, like mom said, “Be polite. Or I’ll smack you.”

Photo credit: Michael Newman

“The worst crime against working people is a company which fails to operate at a profit.” ~ Samuel Gompers 

Most of our posts on the crowdSPRING Blog focus on managing businesses and startups; we often write about best practices, and offer plenty of practical tips for managers. Today is a little different, because in the US, today is Labor Day. Every year on the first Monday in September, we celebrate workers and everything they do for our country and our economy. Parades are held, speeches are given, and workers across the country take an extra day’s rest from their labors to picnic, play with their kids, and (often) shop the sales that businesses love to offer on the last official day of summer.

Samuel Gompers, (see his quote above) was an early leader of the 19th-century labor movement in the US, had it right: businesses owners and managers have a distinct and profound responsibility to the people who work for us. It is incumbent on management to create and sustain an environment that leads to hiring, encourages quality work, rewards effort and accomplishment, treats workers fairly, pays an equitable wage, provides for basic welfare, respects families, supplies adequate work flexibility, and, importantly, celebrates the work itself.

As part of this, I also think it is important to say thank you to your workers as often as you possibly can – without them you have no business being in business. So, I want to thank our team here at crowdSPRING – for their hard work, for their collegiality, and for the fun we have together every day. To do this well, I am taking a few minutes to write an appreciation for each member of our team. Thanks, guys!

John (Shuo) Yang is our Senior Software engineer and one of the smartest people I have ever met. It took me a bit to realize this, because until you get to know him, John tends to be kinda quiet; he listens, he synthesizes, he analyzes and then he acts. Always productive and efficient, John gets things done in a way that doesn’t call attention to himself, but rather to the work product itself. He can be bitingly (though subtly) funny, and I have never seen such a relatively small person eat such massive quantities of lunch. Thanks, John!

Chris Detmer is our UI Developer (the guy who codes and polishes the user-facing parts of the site) and has been with cS longer than any other employee. Chris first came aboard as a consultant back when we were building the site in 2007 and became employee #2 in January 2008, 3 months before we launched. Chris is focused, loyal, flexible, and kind to everyone around him. Not to mention that he is a talented composer, musician, and performer. Plus he likes Legos. Thanks, Chris!

Adriano Marques is our wonderful Brazilian Software Engineer, recently immigrated to the US. He is one of the most dedicated and hardest working people I have ever known and also one of the most caring people around. He is always ready to jump in to help solve a problem or fix a bug, but he is also keenly focused on the big picture and is constantly working to strengthen our site and streamline our product. He is strongly opinionated, but in such a sweet and non-confrontational way that you wouldn’t even know it was the case. Thanks, Adriano!

Diogenes Herminio works for us as a Software Engineer, but does it from his home in Brazil. Diogenes has worked hard in his short time with us to learn the complexities of our software and has successfully mastered that complexity and made some meaningful contributions to the company. He is always there (on Skype) with a smile and a kind word, and his talent grows every day. Thanks, Diogenes!

Audree Rowe Started as an experiment. A successful crowdSPRING, Audree approached us one day and asked to come work for us directly. She had this crazy idea that someone who had actually worked on the site, might provide value and insight to the community that we couldn’t give ourselves. Well, Audree was right – from her first days as our Community Liaison, she has provided help, comfort, advice and expertise to both Creatives and Buyers on the site. She is as knowledgable about our business and our community as anyone and she does her job with as much grace and good humor as I have seen in 30 years in management. All that and she also has a beautiful family! Thanks, Audree!

Bianca Jayanty is more to us than just a “Customer Service Wonder Gal.” She is a tough, funny, sharp individual who gives her total effort to everything she does. She is one of the fastest learners I have ever worked with, and she is never afraid to try something different, develop a new skill, or put herself in an unfamiliar situation. As a matter of fact, as I write this, Bianca is traveling with her sisters (did I mention that Bianca is a triplet?!) in Cambodia, exploring temples, caves, and unusual foods that I can’t wait to hear about. I might also mention that she is a budding stand-up comic working the mic at clubs in Chicago and San Francisco. Cool. Thanks, Bianca!

Dylan Samson started his life at crowdSPRING filing the paid bills and other boring paperwork into folders and drawers. He did it so well and with such a smile on his face, that we started adding on more responsibilities, ultimately putting him in charge of our IP violations process. From scratch, Dylan designed a new system and a new process that helps us to deliver a fast, fair, and and friendly method that allows us to keep our promise to the community to respect and protect their intellectual property. He is friendly, efficient, and always ready to help his team in delivering great customer service. Not to mention that he has a scary knowledge of music old and new and is the Music Director and DJs a fantastic show on WIUX, FM! Thanks, Dylan!

Amanda Werner is a freaking Valedictorian of her college class and helps out around here with marketing and PR. If you are fortunate enough to receive those cS discount offers in your email, it is becaue of Amanda’s hard work. And if you are interested in some of the small businesses that post their projects on crowdSPRING, then you have probably read her weekly “Small Business Spotlight” columns in our blog. Amanda is from Minnesota, which means she is good, smart, and above average in all respects! She also is a cook who is always ready to discuss what we each made for dinner last night and even (on occasion) will let me taste her leftovers at lunch. Thanks, Amanda!

Giuseppe Ribaudo joined us last winter as a Customer Service agent and has shone since day 1! He is an actor who appears in productions at theaters around Chicago and is always ready to discuss so-and-so’s [erformance in a movie we’ve recently seen. He is a generous and thoughtful person and this manifests in the dozens of conversations he has with our users every day. He also speaks Italian and is an accomplished quilter! How cool is that? Thanks, Giuseppe!

Heather Appleman (AKA, “Red Velvet”) came to us via Austin, Texas to become a mainstay of our Customer Service team. She is so reliable that she will sometimes text me to let me know that, for instance, her subway train is on fire and she has to help rescue some people so she may be 2-3 minutes late starting her shift. Seriously. I kid you not. Heather is as steady and responsible as they come – always friendly, ever-smiling, and an attentive presence on our Help Desk who users have come to count on to get speedy and accurate answers to their questions. Heather is currently studying film-making and we look forward to saying that we knew her when… Thanks, Heather!

Brittany Williams is a rock. She indeed a Wonder Girl in our support team and is a person you can count on to be unflappable, calm, and levelheaded no matter what the emergency. Brittany is a wonderful writer and film-maker and is working to establish herself as a producer and production manager. She has a quick and easy smile and an amazing ability to make people feel comfortable and cared for. Thanks, Brittany!

Diego Frausto has the ability to deliver customer service in multiple languages and with equal charm in each! Diego is a full-time student at Loyola University studying business and marketing and has the ability distill complex ideas into simple sentences that any customer can understand. I sometimes read his help desk tickets just to remind myself how effective email support, when done right, can be. Diego is a world traveler and has promised to one day invite us all to his family’s ranch in Mexico! Thanks, Diego!

A couple other folks work with us a great deal as contractors or vendors and they, too, deserve a special thanks: Kona Horler has been doing our books, managing our accounts, and generally lifting our spirits for more than 2 years now; Marko Bijelic is a talented web designer in Bosnia and Herzogovina who helps us maintain the look and feel of the site and contributes every day to our user’s experience on crowdSPRING; Lauren Russ has been handling our PR for the last 3 years and it is because of her efforts that we have been so fortunate to grace the pages of some of the most important media outlets in the world.

Photo – Labor Day New York 1882 Wikimedia

Holidays are upon us, folks and it’s time to give thanks. every business large and small owes a debt to those who have helped over the year and there is no better time to gift than now: your investors and lenders deserve a note, a bottle of wine or other small token to show your appreciation  for their trust, their support, and (hopefully) their advice.

Your employees deserve thanks for their hard work, their productivity, their energy, and their all around contribution to your success. Typically this form of thanks might include a year-end bonus, a holiday bash, and some little swag, maybe a company tee shirt, pin, or jacket. Hey, even a company-branded Gulfstream may be appropriate for some od you out there!

Finally your customers. Ah yes, them. Without this group of people, your business would have no business being in business. How to thank them? Lots of ways great and small and the ideas are endless: for companies with a relatively smaller customer base, you might shoot them a card, send them a small gift, or even invite them down to your company party. For larger companies an email is probably in order, but a little gifty can be nice, too.

One solution that many companies turn to when thanking their customers for their all-important support? Discounts, baby! Airlines offer additional miles to frequent travelers; hotels send out lists of marked down rooms at posh resorts; restaurants will often sell discounted gift cards; car companies inundate us with end-of year offers typically accompanied by shiny bright, ribbon-festooned models.

What you do for your customers is up to you, but consider using coupons and price reductions as a dual-purpose strategy. First, what better way to say thank you then to reduce or even exclude your margin on something that they would purchase anyway? Secondly, why not find ways to increase sales, cement loyalty, and spread-word-of-mouth at the same time? Couponing is a great way to do this, because it is in your control, allows you to gather valuable data, can increase traffic to your store or website, and helps to develop the all-important relationships that businesses and their customers desperately need.

Here are a few ways you can use coupon discounts to reach your customers and deliver that valuable “Thank You!”

1. Via email.

Mailchimp, Constant Contact, JangoMail and the like make it easy to create and manage email  campaigns and special Thank You’s can be sent using any of these or other services. Import your list, modify one of their templates (or create your own design), input your content, and away it goes, delivered to your customer’s virtual doorstep through the internet tubes. An added advantage of using email campaigns to say thanks is the data you’ll receive in return. These services allow you to look at customer behavior that can help when you send your next mailing: you’ll easily view how many of the recipients opened that email, hw many of them clicked through y=to your site, and how many of them actually took you up on the offer. You can easily add tags such that data can be tracked using Google Analytics; you can A/B split your mailing to test different subject lines or different customer segments to gauge  performance; and you can better understand your customers and what maked them tick.

2. Via the Post Office.

For companies dependent on local customers (talking to you Mom & Pop retail store) the US Post Office offers a fantastic product that allows you to target customers (existing or potential) via their zip codes, their streets, or their addresses at a very low cost. For as little as 15¢ via the USPS Every Door Direct Mail service, you can send them a postcard segmented by age, household income, or household size. Your mailing can be tracked as it passes along it’s route and you’ll know exactly who received your coupon, when they received it and (if you plan your design and coding well) who redeemed your coupon and who did not. Naughty or nice, you’ll gain a better understanding of which content and what demographics are working for you to increase response rates on your next mailing.

3. On your site.

With a few simple lines of code, your dev team can generate pop-up or banner offers on your site that will deliver your gift to visitors when they arrive. This strategy can be as simple or sophisticated as you like. Returning customers can receive one offer while new visitors can be offered something different. Browser cookies and retargeting strategies work well to help understand who the visitor is, if they’ve bought from you before, even the frequency of their interactions and this can help you to segment visitors further allowing you to deliver the most special Thank You to the most special customer.

4. Pay-per-click

Google and the other search engines are invaluable resources for helping customers (especially new ones) find you. Well executed SEO/SEM campaigns can yield meaningful results, though be careful as it is not difficult for a business to spend more acquiring customers through these channels than those new customers might contribute to your bottom line.  PPC campaigns can also be used to deliver discounts to customers; create a campaign that offers anyone who finds you through the search results a coupon for the first (or next!) purchase whether that takes place on-line or off. Be sure to carefully code these offers so you can track whether the offer is effective in attracting sales, and whether customers are interested in or appreciative of the “thanks you” offered.

5. Circulars ads and promotions.

A circular is simply a leaflet or pamphlet that is distributed via mail, as an insert in a print publication, or directly at your place of business. The sheer number of  these that you find in your mailbox or when you open the Sunday paper will attest to their popularity as a marketing tool. Their efficacy is arguable and you may choose to distribute these only in your brick-and-mortar store as opposed to paying for distribution via a newspaper or through the mail. Circulars can be used to promote specific products or as a generic Thank You, and can be tracked using QR or other tracking codes to collect data on user behavior and conversion rates.

Image: Ticket for free glass of Coca-Cola, believed to be the first coupon ever, 1888, Wikimedia

Mom taught us well. She raised us to be polite and she raised us to consider other’s feelings. For many small business owners saying thanks to your team is a head-scratcher. Performance-based bonuses can be a powerful incentive for individuals, and profit-sharing plans can reward great teamwork, but saying thank you can and should rise above those. Besides, not every business can afford meaningful bonuses for the team and not every business has profits to share in the first place.

People (read, your team) have a very basic need to be appreciated. Simply saying, “Thank you” for a day’s work, for a solid accomplishment, or for a record of loyalty can go a long way towards job satisfaction and can act as a motivator by reinforcing the behaviors, productivity, and creativity that we all value so much. In fact, studies have shown measurable gains in productivity when positive interactions outweigh the negative ones. The scary thing is that a recent poll showed a very high percentage of workers reporting that they had not received a single affirmation for the good work they had done over the past year. Yikes.

So, small business manager can take simple steps in the way of “Thank You’s” that carry meaning, that are sincere and thoughtful, and that act as a reflection of the culture of the company. Affirming (with consistent regularity) the hard work and contribution each person makes to the team is the low-hanging fruit. Showing your love for your employees is never a bad idea, so here are 6 simple (and free to inexpensive) ideas for special occasions, or even for no occasion at all!

1. Say it! Stop at an employees desk. Sit down next to him. Smile to let him know that this visit is not about a project or a meeting or a deadline. Look him straight in the eye and say “Thank you.” That’s it. Done. (PS – this can also be done  at the lunch table or on the phone or in the elevator. Duh.)

2. Write it. Sadly, the art of the hand-written note is a dying one. Very few people take the time to write a card or  note even on the most appropriate occasions. So what better way to surprise and delight an employee than with something so simple, so unexpected ad a thoughtful, hand-written note or card telling them how much you appreciate something they did, something they learned, or simply that you appreciate having them on your team.

3. Surprise them at surprising times. Paying close attention to the people around you and listening to what they say can lead to wonderful moments to say thanks and these don’t have to be for someone’s birthday, or anniversary, or at the holidays. At any random time during the year, something as simple as a $25 gift certificate to a restaurant you heard a worker mention can show her not only that you appreciate what she does, but that you respect her as a person. People like to know that they are heard, whether the context is a meeting or a water-cooler discussion about great places to eat. Plus, people love surprises and when they receive a gift (even a tiny little one) at a time they wouldn’t normally expect one, the impact is magnified and the value of that thank-you is greatly increased.

4. Shout it out! Recognizing a team member in front of the rest of the team can be a powerful motivator and there are plenty of opportunities to do it. At crowdSPRING we have a bulletin board crowded with printouts of tweets and emails from our customers complimenting this or that team member  and when a new one arrives, the shout heard around the office is “Put it up on the board!” There are lots of other great venues for recognizing folks: a team meeting is a great time to give a shout out and tell the story of an individual to let everyone know about their big accomplishment or their stellar effort. If you publish a newsletter, this is also a wonderful way to acknowledge someone’s contribution.

5. Help them learn. People value opportunities for personal growth virtually as highly as they do monetary benefit. Google recognized this with their “20% time,” which allowed employees to take one day a week to work on side projects (with great results: Gmail being one). Everyone who works for you has their own hobbies and special interests  and these should be not just celebrated and shared, but you should enable your team to pursue what interests them. Training and development programs can also be a great way to say thanks while building capacity and skills for your company; sending your folks to conferences, seminars, and professional development courses go a very long way to showing how much you appreciate someone.

6. Do stuff together. Lastly, time together doing fun or interesting things is a great way to say thanks while providing the chance for team building and personal bonding. Do outings together, eat lunch together, share movies and books with each other, and plan time away from work where you can just have fun with the folks from work. At cS we have had events as different as company outings to a day at Lallapalooza to after-work beers, to movie nights in the home theater and to a team kayaking trip (the photo at the top of this post was taken this past September on the Chicago River at dusk!).

When perusing our galleries here on crowdSPRING, we see some amazing work submitted in the projects. Today, we noticed this gem submitted in this logo project.

Let us start the slow clap for kantar. Check out more great work on kantar’s profile page.

Nicely done, kantar, nicely done!

Image Source: MarketingLand

I’ve never been one of those women on a hair styling and maintenance schedule. My trims were sporadic and sometimes self-inflicted. My color would shift seasonally by the barrel of a box dye. Being a bit of a thrift diva, I had a hard time justifying forking over the cash for something I was quite certain I could do myself… even after doing it myself for years almost destroyed my hair.

On a whim one day, I decided to splurge and have someone else try their hand at taming my mane. Though the stylist was terrified by the state of my split ends, he was able to work some impossible magic and make my hair behave. It was quite impressive, honestly.

And though I liked him and his work, I probably wouldn’t have gone back. I’ve liked other stylists and the results they provided in the past. I just tend to forget about upkeep, and by the time I realize my roots are sticking out like a sore thumb, I’m too impatient to wait for an appointment and the cycle begins again.

But not this time. Why? SMS marketing.

Mario Tricoci is not the only salon or business that encourages their clients to sign up for their text messaging service, but they are an excellent example of why it can be an excellent strategy. Intermittent texts reminding me about the need for maintenance and offering special discounts have kept me going back to a stylist who otherwise might have lost me as a client by no fault of his own.

And I am no anomaly here.

Text messages boast a 98% open rate, while email, on average, gets a mere 20% open rate… if you’re lucky. But the difference isn’t just pronounced in terms of opens. SMS marketing receives a response rate of 45%, while email only elicits a 6% response rate. Moreover, it’s a form of communication your customers want; approximately 70% of customers in recent studies indicated a desire for SMS communication with businesses.

But despite this and the relatively low cost of SMS marketing, it’s still a largely untapped marketing resource. As Justin Mastrangelo explains at Duct Tape Marketing:

SMS is used by some of the biggest brands in the US, but remains relatively “untapped” by small and mid-sized businesses.

Many small to mid-sized businesses we talk to are amazed to hear how many large, well-known brands are using SMS marketing today. They’re also amazed when they realize not many, if any, of their competitors are using it. Quickly, the conversation turns to “why haven’t we considered this sooner” and “when can we start?” As with any form of marketing, whenever you can reach the audience where your competition isn’t, the more effective it can be.

How can your business effectively leverage SMS marketing? There are four steps you can take to get started.

1. Find the service provider that’s right for you. There are a good number of options available. Some offer free trials, others offer monthly subscriptions, and others offer pay-per-text options. Examples include Textedly, Mozeo, SimpleTexting, and Betwext.

2. Start by focusing on existing customer engagement. This gives you the opportunity to prove the value of the strategy with an already friendly crowd. Moreover, these will be the folks most likely to demonstrate conversion and ROI. If they like you enough to have given you business in the past AND sign up for your SMS services, they’re probably going to be pretty receptive to any offers you provide.

2. Once you have proof of concept, begin encouraging signup with new customers. The sooner you can get them engaged in the service, the sooner you can begin expanding the ROI on your efforts.

3. Invest in good copy. If you really want to get the most bang for your SMS marketing buck, make sure your texts are expertly crafted and engaging. This makes it way more likely that your customers will read, respond, and engage. And if you need help wording the perfect SMS campaign, crowdSPRING can help.

Have you tried SMS marketing in the past? What other tips would you provide those just starting out?

Image Source: Evolation Yoga

If you haven’t been living under a rock for the past two decades, you’ve probably at least had a passing encounter with the term “mindfulness,” whether it was seeing the term splashed on magazine covers, listening to self-help gurus extol its value on daytime talk shoes, or hearing your own therapist encourage its application in your day to day life. The concept, often closely associated with far Eastern cultures, has transitioned from a fashionable term to an almost ubiquitous concept in Western lives… even if poorly understood.

Mindfulness, particularly in Western interpretations of the practice, is most frequently and precisely discussed in the context of CBT, or cognitive behavioral therapy. This is probably best understood as a “check yourself before you wreck yourself” form of self-correcting course before your imagination or rationalizations can get the best of you, causing undue stress and anxiety in your life.

Dr.  Chris Niebauer explains this in The Neurotic’s Guide to Avoiding Enlightenment, saying:

The essence of this new form of therapy is that anxiety and depression are caused by thinking problems, that is, distortions in thinking cause negative emotions. It focuses on the assumptions and interpretations of the patient; for example, the cognitive distortion called catastrophizing is when a person exaggerates the importance of some event like a job promotion. “If I don’t get this promotion, I’m a total failure.” or “If my relationship doesn’t work out, I’ll be alone the rest of my life and miserable.” The point of the therapy is to make explicit how these assumptions result in negative emotions and to make the thoughts and assumptions more realistic.

This sort of internal chiding is distinctly important for those in creative fields, where subjective feedback loops can compound and warp in our minds to become something far more degrading. And even when we don’t find ourselves in a self-driven negativity spiral, experience can foster a sort of cognitive rigidity that holds back our ability to create something truly exceptional by limiting our mind’s willingness to consider options that fall outside our direct sphere of experience.

In a 2012 study, researchers from Harvard and Ben Gurion conducted an experiment which gave a series of tasks to participants. A portion were to practice various forms of mindfulness meditation. The rest were left to their own devices. The results were far from ambiguous. As they wrote in PLOS One:

These findings lend support to the notion that mindfulness involves cultivation of a “beginner’s mind”, and demonstrate that mindfulness practice reduces cognitive rigidity via the tendency to overlook simple novel solutions to a situation due to rigid and repetitive thought patterns formed through experience.

The present findings coincide with previous findings in which meditators outperformed non-meditators in tasks such as verbal fluency and visual perspective switching , in the respect of exhibiting an improved ability to generate varied responses to the same stimuli following mindfulness practice. Findings of the current study also coincide with previous findings indicating that meditators may exhibit decreased interference in the Stroop and Hayling tasks in the sense of decreased automatic and habitual responding following mindfulness practice. Our findings additionally converge with findings regarding decreased rumination in the sense of a reduction in repetitive and perseverative negative thoughts. Findings of the current study bear novel contributions to the existing literature firstly by demonstrating that reductions in such rigid repetitive thinking patterns following mindfulness practice are evident regardless of thought valence or specific content and therefore reflect reduction in cognitive rigidity rather than a specific reduction in rigid ruminative content.

[…]

An additional and central novel contribution of this study regards the increased ability to identify and utilize simple novel yet obvious solutions despite having experienced a successful, albeit complex approach in the recent past. Interestingly, the benefit of mindfulness was not restricted to years of experience and was found even following a six-week intervention.

In other words, practicing mindfulness can keep your mind open to new ways of doing things that are more efficient and effective while keeping your internal feedback loop healthy, and those benefits can be reaped in a relatively short period of practice.

Whether you’re a designer, marketing executive, or entrepreneur, those benefits are ones that can help you both personally and professionally. But how can you get started?

• Go to Google and search for mindfulness meditation groups in your area. There are more of them than you think, and these meetups can be incredibly beneficial. You’ll be able to learn from those with more experience and receive positive reinforcement as you try to learn how to apply these tactics in your day to day life.
• Try out a yoga class or two. While yoga is not technically all about mindfulness meditation, it does incorporate many of the same elements, and the physical demands of the class can force you to apply the techniques in a way that other settings might not.
• If that’s not your jam, consider using an app to help you learn best practices. The Mindfulness App, in particular, is great because it not only teaches you about involved principles, but can help you structure your application of the ideas with meditation timers and day by day guides.
• Looking for something a bit more involved? Give Spire a whirl. One part Fitbit and one part pocket therapist, the gadget can be clipped onto your clothes in a number of unobtrusive fashions. Not only will it measure things like steps and calories burnt, but it monitors your breathing, and will issue a gentle buzz if your system is getting out of whack to encourage you to take a deep breath. Its associated app also features a number of exercises to help keep you centered throughout the day.

Have you tried to incorporate mindfulness into your daily routine? What’s worked? What hasn’t? Share in the comments below.

When perusing our galleries here on crowdSPRING, we see some amazing work submitted in the projects. Today, we noticed this gem submitted in this logo project.

Let us start the slow clap for UWAK4. Check out more great work on UWAK4’s profile page.

Nicely done, UWAK4, nicely done!

Image Source: Pulatech.com

It’s no secret that mobile web use has skyrocketed over the past several years, with smartphone ownership in the U.S. nearly doubling between 2011 and 2015. And these smartphone users are all about the apps. The average smartphone user downloads 8.8 apps per month, spending 90% of their time on their phone in apps versus in mobile browsing windows. And there are a deluge of experts out there who insist that the development of brand-centric mobile applications is the future of marketing.

But these statistics can be misleading. The average mobile application loses roughly 77% of its daily active users within three days of them installing the app. And given that the average mobile application costs an average of $150,000 to develop and that brands primarily use paid media to promote their apps, this very expensive endeavor may appear to have a questionable return.

The question is: should YOUR company create its own mobile app?

To effectively answer this question, you’ll need to answer a few other questions first.

What are you hoping to achieve with your app?

Given how long the average consumer spends staring at their phone, having your brand’s logo front and center on their home screen certainly has some appeal from a brand recognition perspective, but there are probably less expensive and more durable ways to accomplish that objective than app development. If you’re going to go down this road, you really need to have a very clear idea of the sorts of behavior you want to drive with your consumer base. This knowledge will serve as the foundation for conversations about function and design moving forward, so start here.

How do you hope to achieve your goals within the app?

It’s one thing to say that you want to increase awareness of new products or drive purchases or increase brand loyalty. Those are all worthy goals, and all, in theory, within reach via mobile application development. But you really need to spend time thinking about how your app is going to drive those behaviors. It’s not enough to throw something together. You’ll need to get creative about how you go about encouraging certain actions. Consumers are smart. They know when an app is just a marketing placeholder. Which leads us to…

What value are you providing to the consumer?

You have to remember that you are going up against a ton of competition. As of June 2016, Android users alone had more than 2.2 million apps available to them. So when it comes time for them to decide what app to download — and ultimately, what app to keep — it comes down to what they’re getting out of the mobile relationship. Maybe that means they get great discounts. Maybe it means you’ve implemented gamification tactics that keep them coming back for more. But if it’s not valuable to them, it’s not going to have great ROI.

Can you commit? 

Yes, it comes with a high price tag. But believe it or not, that’s just in the first couple of years of the app’s life. As time marches on and technology races forward, you’re going to need to keep updating the app itself, and there will invariably be bugs along the way. If you want to develop a mobile app, you need to be totally confident in your answers to the first three questions, and able to get a firm yes from your team on this last one.

All this said, there are ways for you to maximize impact while minimizing costs. Once you have a strong sense of what you’re hoping to achieve with your app, using platforms crowdSPRING to draw mobile app design ideas from the crowd can help you better visualize and anticipate the costs of your development needs.

There’s no denying the power of the crowd when it comes to creative projects. At crowdSPRING, a community of over 190,000 creatives collaborates with businesses around the world to help them stand out with quality designs and copywriting on a daily basis. But can the crowd contribute to professional development?

According to Jonathan Chan at Foundr Magazine, the crowd doesn’t just contribute to your professional development, it is vital:

History teaches us that in order to be successful at anything, you need to be surrounding yourself with like-minded people who possess the same kind of vision as you. You need to create the sort of environment that allows you to grow and fully realize your own potential, and all of that starts with surrounding yourself with the right people.

Often, the “right people” Chan mentions are spread across the globe, so the only way to build a crowd focused on maximizing the potential of all its members is through online communities. Traditionally, these communities were forums and social media groups, but recently community builders have turned to the real-time chat tool Slack as their platform of choice.

Why Slack?

Slack has become an invaluable tool to many businesses since its launch in 2013. Last year, the messaging and collaboration app surpassed the milestone of 1,000,000 active daily users and it hasn’t shown any sign of slowing down.

The benefit of building an online community on Slack over traditional forums and social media groups is straightforward: it’s quick, simple, and a lot of people use it. Slack’s real-time messaging and notifications make active communities a hub of instant feedback, advice, and networking opportunities while the app’s widespread use in top agencies and companies makes it easy for users to join a new community and contribute immediately.

If you’re interested in taking your professional development to the crowd, here are some of the top Slack communities for entrepreneurs, designers, and marketers to get you started:

Entrepreneurs

• #smallbiz: Connect with other small business owners to share learnings and advice.
• #Launch: #Launch is a place to collaborate, discuss new products, find work, get feedback, or even find a co-founder.
• amateurprenuer: A community on Slack for beginner entrepreneurs. Discuss, share, get help and acquire feedback.

Designers

• Design Talks: Design Talks is a place to talk about all things design, including UI/UX, web design, illustrations, and more
• Dear Designers: Dear Designers helps you figure out your next steps in becoming a better designer from folks a few steps ahead of you.
• Spec: Talk design and development with the Spec community of over 5,000 designers.

Marketers

• Online Geniuses: Debate trends, discuss the latest industry topics, network, and learn from a community of over 4,000 marketers
• #CreativeTribes: Join startup entrepreneurs, strategists, marketers, developers, designers, writers and other creatives to share and discuss tribe-building strategies.
• CROTricks: Discuss conversion rate optimization with the CROTricks community of experts.

I’m in. Now what?

After joining a Slack community, read the rules and introduce yourself. Check out all the channels and read their descriptions to find the most relevant ones to watch. It is just as important to contribute as it is to benefit from the group so try to be an active member of the community by offering a helping hand any time your expertise allows and joining in on relevant discussions. If you have found the right community, you will quickly find like-minded individuals eager to help you succeed.

Are you currently a member of a Slack community that has helped your professional development? Let us know about it in the comments!

Image Source: PinkYourLifeUp.com

It’s October, which many associate with things like Halloween and the true beginning of fall. Unfortunately, for (too) many marketers, the colors this month will not be autumnal tones, but a gaudy pink. That’s right: it’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month once more, and brands, once more, are getting it all wrong.

On the surface, this is a worthy cause. Breast cancer impacts one in eight women. It’s estimated that there have been more than 246,000 new cases in 2016 alone. It’s a painful, traumatizing, and sometimes lethal diagnosis, and the search for a cure is so incredibly important.

But National Breast Cancer Awareness Month is an example of a drive for a cause that’s gone awry. Despite stated good intentions, the execution of the efforts is less than inspiring.

As Triple Pundit reports:

It [is] an important fundraising time for Susan G. Komen Foundation — which, despite what the name of its annual “Race for the Cure” implies, only spends 20 percent of its funds on research and 37 percent on “education.” All totaled, the organization spends more money on administration than it does on treatment. In recent years, Komen garnered plenty of criticism for its excessive executive pay and its penchant to put politics ahead of purpose on issues involving Planned Parenthood and stem cell research.

Meanwhile, Komen is notorious for transforming the pink ribbon into a monetizing machine that has enriched corporations while making plenty of women resentful that their very personal and often lonely pain is leveraged to garner companies’ positive press. Despite the annual outcry, companies continue to collect publicity, and revenues, on a bevy of cause marketing promotions that range from airline miles promotions to credit cards.

In other words, it’s often an initiative that does more to make contributors feel good and companies profit than it does for actual research and women suffering though the diagnosis.

And in some cases, the pinkwashing is just breathtakingly absurd. For instance, in 2014, drilling giant Baker Hughs made a $100,000 donation to the Susan G. Komen Foundation, and then turned around to distribute 1,000 pink drill bits used for fracking to “raise awareness.” The problem? Fracking involves dozens of chemicals known to cause cancer.

Image Source: Breast Cancer Consortium

And no small number of women have balked at the premise on principle, arguing that these attempts both trivialize and sexualize a disease that is anything but sexy.

As writer Parker Marie Molloy explains:

Why exactly does breast cancer, above other forms of cancer, find itself the centerpiece of the cancer research/marketing field? For lack of a better way to phrase this: breasts are sexy.

“Save the boobies!” “Save the ta-tas!” “Save Second Base!” “Feel Your Boobies!”

These are all examples of actual lines organizations have used to promote breast cancer awareness. The American Cancer Society takes the cake with its own tag line: “It’s Okay to Look at Our Chests!”

The sexualization of this all-too-real medical condition plays right into the classic marketing strategy of “sex sells.” Maybe so, but that doesn’t make it right; and it certainly doesn’t make it any less objectifying.

These slogans work to divide the woman, the human life at risk, from her breasts. When you say, “save second base,” you’re not only playing into the idea that the value of a woman lies solely in her looks, but you’re also suggesting that we should search for a cure for nothing else but to give men something to play with.

Breast cancer is serious, not sexy.

You don’t see this type of marketing approach for other types of cancer. You wouldn’t see a “save the nuts!” poster for testicular cancer awareness, would you? Why is it any more appropriate to say, “save the boobies?”

Molloy wrote this in 2013. She was not the first to point out the problem, and has not been the last. But despite the persistent outcry, the marketing machine continues, with major brands offering all sorts of pink-washed products. Even the NFL — an organization with a less than stellar record when it comes to issues that disproportionately impact women, like domestic violence and rape — drenches itself in pink during October.

It’s almost mind-boggling. You’ve got data suggesting these efforts are about profit more than progress. You’ve got those suffering and those who have survived begging us to cut it out. And yet, year after year, we get marketers who think going all pretty in pink is wise.

But as stated above, searching for a cure for breast cancer is still a very worthy cause, and it’s admirable that brands want to contribute. There are just better ways to do it than going pink. How?

• Always research the organizations you’re supporting before you start. Instead of supporting an organization focused on “awareness,” donate to groups that are actually working towards a cure. The Breast Cancer Research Foundation is an excellent choice.
• If you’re going to be altruistic, be altruistic. Don’t make it about a profit. Instead of selling something pink, hold a fundraising drive. Promise to match donations made in a specific manner. Keep the focus on the cause and not your pocket. Not only is that just the right thing to do, but it will create a more meaningful impact on your brand anyway.
• Be conscientious of the marketing collateral you create to support such efforts. Brash imagery and language about saving the boobies might seem edgy and likely to garner attention, but if your efforts to help folks in need ignores the feelings of those you’re helping, you’re doing it wrong.

By all means, let’s find a cure. But let’s do it the right way, shall we?

Image Source: Imagine Therapies

On October 10th every year, folks around the globe recognize World Mental Health Day, and this year is no exception. Established in 1992, the day is intended to raise awareness related to struggles involving mental illness and mobilize resources to address those struggles. With the rise of social media, the visibility of the day and the conversations that surround it have been, thankfully, greatly enhanced.

This issue is incredibly important. It is estimated that at least one in five people are living with some sort of mental illness or mental health struggle. Intense stigma surrounding diagnoses often prevents people from seeking out help and support, which compounds the pain and loneliness associated with these experiences. Through courageous and vulnerable public discourse on days like today, we can help each other live happier, healthier lives.

And this is a subject of particular relevance to those occupying creative spaces. Whether you’re a designer, writer, or marketer, so much of what we do involves dynamic, out-of-the-box thinking. And as it turns out, people whose brains are wired a bit differently tend to be particularly good at those sorts of tasks. As a result, researchers have found again and again and again that creative types experience mental illness at a much higher frequency than those in other fields.

True, there is some debate over just how strong this scientific evidence is, but even if the frequency weren’t higher, it would still be important to talk about creatives living with mental illness, if only when considering how the nature of the work impacts such experiences. So much creative work is done in isolation, whether that a function of how the work works, an attempt to encourage creativity, or an element of freelancing. And for those living with mental illness, isolation is often dangerous. Being alone with your thoughts when your thoughts turn mutinous is never a good thing.

To this end, creatives, perhaps more than anyone, need days like today. Not only because it reminds us that we are not alone, but because it provides an opportunity to recognize another important fact: mental illness doesn’t meant you’re defective. It doesn’t mean you’re broken or deficient. It means you’re different, and difference is not inherently bad.

That’s not said to diminish some of the very painful aspects of living with mental illness by any stretch of the imagination. But the differences in the way your brain process information means you’re going to see things differently than others, bringing valuable perspective and insights to any table at which you sit. The differences between your life experiences and those who are neurologically atypical can make you a more compassionate and empathetic thinker. And frankly, your persistence in the face of adversity and judgment speak to a strength not everyone can boast. These are positive elements of neurodiversity that too frequently get lost in the shuffle when we talk about mental illness.

So on this year’s World Mental Health Day, we tip our hats to the creatives who live with mental illness every day. We applaud your resilience, we stand in solidarity with you in the face of discrimination, and we celebrate your neurodiversity. You are exceptional. Never forget it.

• Living with mental illness and looking for help? These online resources are worth a look. 
• Is someone you love living with mental illness? Here are important things to keep in mind.
• Want to support an organization doing great work to support and empower those living with mental illness? Take a look at NAMI.