Years ago it was a fairly common refrain to hear people tell you the key to a happy life was to avoid discussions with anybody except close personal friends regarding religion, sex and politics. Getting into a conversation about the pros and cons of today’s Canadian Health care system could almost be added to the list.

Notwithstanding the advice, one area that I find intriguing is the changes taking place at Winnipeg’s Health Science Centre (HSC). My observations aren’t about the medical personnel that make their living there, but more about the obvious changes (for the better) that are taking place with the actual facility. Having grown up with a mother who taught nursing at St. Boniface Hospital, I have vivid memories of the temporary entrance at St. B that ended up lasting 30 years. It was a dreadful entrance that started the whole hospital experience on the wrong foot. After navigating the hordes of smokers at the door, you ended up in a dank, small reception area. This of course has been rebuilt, and the new entrance and Everett Atrium common area at St. Boniface is quite impressive. It seems that the patient/customer experience matters after all.

HSC seems to have gotten the same Memo as St.Boniface Hospital. Having spent the past 4 weeks visiting a family member recuperating at HSC, I am quietly impressed by the grand foyer stretching from the recently opened CanadInn Hotel (which also has the nicest Starbucks in Winnipeg in its lobby) to the new entrance underneath the Kleysen Institute for Advanced Medicine. Gone is the old institutional look. Halogen lighting and floor to ceiling windows in the commercial space gives an impressive feel that welcomes comfort and contemplation. Amenities such as a pharmacy, gift shop, flower shop and soon to be opened wellness marketplace will only add to the experience for both patient and family visitor. The elliptical gallery and display area on the way to the elevators is often filled with both patients and relatives in conversation. In a sense, a place to meet, talk, cry and laugh – finally.

Hospitals are serious places – and HSC is Winnipeg’s biggest. While many may still dispute that our health care facilities are changing, it is apparent to anybody spending time at HSC that the dour institutional look of yesteryear is rapidly being replace with a more patient and visitor friendly facility.

My question is this. What is your Winnipeg business doing to upgrade your customers’ experience? Our much maligned health care facilities are obviously taking steps to address the issue – are you doing the same in your business?

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We have seen a couple of branding projects at Hep take interesting turns in the last month.   Fortunately, we have been able to keep them on course because we have been focused on a branding process that starts with a solid foundation.   Clients need to realize that branding is more than just logo design. The image of your organization needs to be a reflection of your core values.  It is an extension of you.  At Hep, we work to identify what your special sauce is and document it in such a way so that there is no guess work in what your brand extensions should reflect.   Your online marketing needs to be especially sensitive to your brand as you only have a couple of seconds to impress.  If your brand is built out properly, you will be able to sleep well at night knowing that there is consistency in presentation and meaning to what you do in every marketing channel.

It is far too competitive a landscape to let your brand simply slip into a collection of images that don’t really capture your business.

Start with a solid foundation and build out from there.

Hep

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It seems whenever I give a presentation of LinkedIn, there are always some doubters in the room.

That’s to be expected whenever you’re presenting a ‘new fangled contraption’, no matter what industry you’re in.

People are often surprised, however, when I can back up my words with proof from my own experience. I’ve been able to use connections to effectively sell the various LinkedIn services I provide for individuals and companies, as well as the other services offered by Hep Communications.

At times though, there are still doubters, and I can’t say I necessarily blame them. After all, I’m in the business of LinkedIn and have been using the platform for the better part of the last five years.

So with that in mind, I humbly submit the following to you:

A few weeks ago, I came across a request that went through a group I’m a member of – Social Media Marketing. Not a regional group, Social Media Marketing brings the best North American (and truly global) experts together to dispense and share advice on best practices.

The gentleman was looking for a marketing company who could help him with branding.

He now has this:

The Power of LinkedIn - Hep CommunicationsYes, you read that right – 65 comments, the vast majority of which are companies from as far away as Australia offering their services.

This, my friends, is the power of LinkedIn.

Questions? I’m sure you have them. Contact me today to learn more about unlocking the power of LinkedIn at 204 992 6400.

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We are doing a lot of Brand development and branding work in Winnipeg.  I have to coach and council many of our clients not to get in the way of where they want their brand to go.  Your brand needs to be thought of where you want to be 2 to 5 years out.  Not where you are today.

Ofter a client’s personal bias will interfere with where the brand needs to be positioned to attract the chosen target market.  It is very important to park your ego and your personal bias in order to give the brand an opportunity to reach it’s potential.

Your brand stretches across many channels including online, mobile and traditional medias.  You only have a second or two to make an impact.  You better resonate with your target or they will be off to the competition.

Remember, it’s not what you want, it’s what your target audience wants. We create brands that resonate with your audience.

Hep

Posted in Brand, Branding, Mobile Marketing, Multi-Channel Marketing, Online Advertising, Online Marketing, Website Design | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Earlier this week on Linked in I shared a a link to a facebook analyst conference call where it was revealed that there were three main parts to their ongoing strategy. Mark Zuckerberg revealed that building the best mobile product was one of the three main parts of their strategy.

So, when the news was announced this week that Target is collaborating to let facebook users earn savings that can be redeemed via a smartphone at Target stores, you just knew that something had changed in the marketplace.

As Target has amassed a fan base of 21 million, this gives the ‘collaborative’ effort an instant boost. Combined with the fact that when a user picks a deal (savings) it will appear on the facebook news feed so other friends can see it, thereby creating immediate exposure of the selected deal being offered to countless people, you just know this is the start of something big. No wonder the beta version of this program is called Cartwheel. The image that comes to mind is an Olympic gymnast soaring at great heights across the mat, seemingly defying gravity. Considering Target is the fourth most visited site in the U.S. with 26 million unique visitors per month, you can only imagine how much exposure this will get. Considering deals will be offered on hundreds of special deals ranging from 5% to 30%, we can only imagine the impact this new mobile app will have.

Still scratching your head over what a mobile site or app can do to help your business? Now might be the time to start investigating how mobile is going to change the game for retailers over the next two to three years.

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Last week, we got a call out of the blue from CTV asking if someone from Hep would like to share expert opinion on a Social Media campaign that was launched in Winnipeg about homeless people.

How did CTV find us?   They Googled Social Media Marketing expert.  Voila!  Up came a blog entry that we had tagged about social media marketing.  The interview led to mention the Hep team as experts and will probably pay off in new lead generation for our business.

This stuff really works.  For your Winnipeg Business, it’s time you started taking your online marketing seriously

Hep

Posted in Internet Marketing Strategies, Lead Generation, Online Marketing, Search Engine Marketing, Small Business Marketing, Social Media Marketing | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Your car or truck can be a great moving advertisement for your company – if you do it right.

Here at Hep Communications, we’ve helped numerous Winnipeg businesses with their outdoor advertising, including full or partial car wraps. Beautiful in design, an attractive car wrap can help your company write your message across Winnipeg and beyond; a bad design, however, can do more harm than good.

Join John Heppenstall as he guests with Michael Clark and Kelly Taylor, this Saturday on AM680 CJOB, 10am – 12pm, 680 on your am dial or listen online at cjob.com

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The title of this entry gives the simple question, but if you don’t know what I’m referring to allow me to elaborate.

TSN's feeds, found conveniently in one block on their website.

Recently, I’ve seen more and more websites that have a Facebook or Twitter feed right on their front page. This ranges from news entities like TSN to retailers and personal pages.

Now this is all well and good, in theory – after all, your website should have some connectivity to your other online engines; but a Facebook or Twitter feed is dependent on a couple pieces:

1> Fresh content – Having a Twitter feed is all well and good, but are you updating your Tweets frequently? If not, you’re showing that your content is stale, and if your Twitter isn’t being used, someone might get the perception that your entire site contains old information.

2> Original content – One of the great things about social media is that you can feed in other elements automatically. Twitterfeed, for example, can feed your blog to your various social media. It ends up becoming cyclical, however, to have the links to your website within the feed. If this is going to be the only content you have on your social media, then the repetition serves no useful purpose and you’re better off to just have a blog feed to your front page.

With these points in mind, now’s the time to ask yourself whether the feed is truly necessary or not.

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Many of our clients have been approached by the communications giant Rogers about improving their rankings on Google.

Funny, it has the same smell as the Yellow pages promising you top position in their online directory.

Why this desperate move by Rogers?  It seems that they are running scared of cell phone deregulation and actual competition entering the Canadian market.  They are seeking other revenue streams to make up the expected shortfall of data-revenue.  I get their entry into the business phone market.  But why stretch themselves into the online search business.  How will this generate more data revenue?   Doesn’t this have the same feel as the Yellow pages entering the online market to replace the revenue from their door stop printed version?

Rogers promises top rankings. If it sounds to good to be true, it probably is.  They are promising organic rankings, but are using mostly Google Adwords to accomplish this.  Sorry.  This is not organic.  The rankings are not sustainable.  You will need to spend more and more money with them every month.  Oh – and what about strategy?  Conversion?   Do you think they will have the time to sit down with you to  really understand your business and your market?

If you sign up for the program, you can expect the same level of customer service that we have all become accustomed to with big companies.  Non – responsive automated crap.

If this experiment works for Rogers as well as it did for the Yellow Pages, it will be great for Hep.

Roger that.

Posted in Google Adwords, Google Analytics, Internet Marketing Strategies, Lead Generation, Online Advertising, Search Engine Marketing | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment