Fort Payne Times-Journal Publisher Steven Stiefel brings to light the role newspapers still serve in communities today as the area’s storyteller and ways to stay involved in the growth and happenings in and around Fort Payne. Click this PODCAST EPISODE to listen.
HATE is a four-letter word I reserve for things I truly despise. In recent years, Facebook has sadly joined that club.
Facebook has experienced so much negative press attention that they recently rebranded as “Meta” in the sort of old PR move that disguises something to confuse users by giving it a new name. Most recently, they’ve started running ad spots meant to create the perception that they actually welcome government regulation and value user privacy. Give me a break.
I’ve been around social media since the early days and helped launch a competitive platform on a similar timeline to Facebook. When I watch the movie “The Social Network,” it brings back fond memories of a time when young tech-savvy guys fueled by beer and testosterone didn’t even know where our efforts would lead or whether we’d ever be able to monetize it, we just knew it was cool and fun.
In hindsight, Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg found ways to make an obscene amount of money exploiting the human need for connection and the information we share to do that. Our society is worse off for it because of the ethical shortcuts taken along the way.
Do you hate always comparing yourself to your competitors and feeling as if you need to level up to match them? Worry about failure? Hate being photographed and how you have looked in past photos?
Then Stiefel Creative has solutions to make it easier and more enjoyable to promote your brand.
If you’ve been struggling to hire a quality digital marketing company because of the high fees, then I have some great news!
We’ve launched a new level of services — “Starter” Services — designed to get your digital marketing up and running and generating results for your business, even on a limited budget.
Learn more about these services, and if you’re interested in talking about what we can do for your company, request a quote.
Read More
I received the nicest endorsement last week from a former client, Mark Oldham of Oldham Properties. He’s a former client because I no longer employed full-time with the marketing agency through which I performed work for him.
It follows:
Wednesday, August 7, 2019
To Whom It May Concern:
This letter is being written on behalf of Steven Stiefel.
Steven handled my various accounts while he was employed with Riverworks Marketing in Chattanooga. We owned 2 inns and 2 restaurants during his tenure there — StoneFort Inn, TerraMae, as well as Dancing Bear Lodge and Appalachian Bistro in Townsend, Tennessee.
Amongst other things, Steve wrote a ton of copy, “word-smithed” many ads, responded to complaints in the most incredibly professional manner (which we still miss to this date), brainstormed ideas, and generally was a fantastic person with whom to deal on all aspects of our marketing.
“Successful people ask better questions, and as a result, they get better answers.”
– Tony Robbins
Having the information you need to determine whether a new business idea is practical begins with asking the right questions.
Starting a new business often begins with a desire to create something unique that we can control instead of spending the rest of our careers reliant upon someone else making decisions that affect our livelihoods.
The spark, the entrepreneurial fire, begins with an idea and a desire to create something. Maybe it is buying a popular franchise and bringing it to your community before someone else does. Or perhaps it is starting something from scratch and shaping it into whatever you want.
Read More
Crisis communications planning is all about anticipating the things that keep you awake in the middle of the night. Like the lifeboats on a cruise ship, it’s a tool you may hope you never have to use – but one that can salvage your organization in the toughest of situations.
An unexpected public relations crisis can strike even the best-managed businesses, large or small. These can be recalls of dangerous or contaminated products, a civil product liability lawsuit, or some other unforeseen disaster that may hurt sales, the bottom line, and/or reflect badly on a company’s image.
Your best bet in these instances is to defuse problems and resolve them favorably with an honest, vigorous damage control effort that converts the public into allies and paves the foundation for rebuilding the public perception of your brand. A Crisis Communications Plan lies at the core of such a public relations effort. Stiefel Creative can help you weather the storm.
Let get real for a second.
Unless you are moving millions of units of whatever you sell, your small business may not need to employ a full-time marketing person on staff. If you don’t aspire to grow your brand, you may be perfectly fine right where you are.
Let’s hope your competition feels the same.
Stiefel Creative is a digital marketing consultancy for companies that DO want to grow their customer base by raising awareness and creating opportunities for people to buy.
Don’t let anyone fool you by suggesting that you can’t compete against the big corporate brands. They are Goliath, you are David and we are your stone.
Stiefel Creative offers branding and content creation services as needed or on a monthly retainer basis for small business clients.
So how, specifically, can Stiefel Creative help your brand?
Here are a few ways…
Read More
re·dun·dan·cy(/rəˈdəndənsē/) noun – The inclusion of extra components which are not strictly necessary to functioning, in case of failure in other components: “a high degree of redundancy is built into the machinery installation”
The idiom “don’t put all of your eggs in one basket” is critical to the marketing of your brand when it comes to deciding which platforms to use to distribute your messaging.Read More