Rock the Vote: My New Site has Been Nominated for the CSS Design Awards

I am out-of-this-world excited to announce http://www.ShawnGraham.me (my new digital home) has been nominated for the CSS Design Awards—a contest recognizing the world’s greatest websites and an inspirational showcase celebrating emerging talent.

Check out my new site and, if you like what you see, show some love by casting your vote. Just click on the thumbnail of ShawnGraham.me to cast your official nod.

And if you would, please ask friends, family, your friends’ families and your family’s friends to vote as well. Winning this award would mean the world to Moly and I—over the past few months we put our heart and soul into bringing the site to life.

I hope you enjoy my new virtual digs as much as we enjoyed creating them.

I have a brand spanking new website.

For the past few months, I’ve been conspiring with a rock star designer on a complete overhaul of my virtual digs to coincide with the launch of my freelance career consulting and marketing communications business.

For the past few months, I’ve poured my heart and soul into every word of every page. And today I’m excited to announce that my new site is officially live and in living color.

So welcome! Please let me show you around…

I wanted my bio to be a little unique — I wanted to share my story: from the apple farm on which I grew up that was purchased by my grandparents in the early 1900s, to my first entrepreneurial venture at age 10 to today. Oh, and there are even a few pictures to look at.

Since consulting is at the heart of my business, I wanted to provide a menu of services for each of my focus areas brought to you in four snazzy buckets: career, higher education, entrepreneurs, and medium to large businesses. Along those same lines, I also thought it was important explain how I work with each client starting with our first conversation.

Next, you’ll find speaking which includes a real, live glamour shot from a recent presentation to a group of eager and highly-talented MBA students at Duquesne University. There you’ll also find an overview of presentation topics, a list of the organizations at which I’ve presented, and some good old-fashioned testimonials.

My blog includes a fresh new design, tighter categories, links to sites I like, and of course no blog would be complete without Twitter and RSS feeds. I also came up with a fancy new name—Creative Combustion.

The press page includes my media mentions in a few well-known publications and is meant to establish instant credibility as well as thoroughly impress my mom (pronounced “mum”).

Finally, I’ve added a fancy new contact form to make it easier for us to connect. So what are you waiting for? Drop me a line to let me know what you think of my new digs or so we can start to explore how we might be able to work together.

Fast Company Blog: Customer Engagement – Why All Companies Could Use a Little MOO

What do you do to make your customers happy that they forked over their hard-earned cash to buy your product or service? I mean beyond the fancy marketing pitch and slick packaging that you used to encourage them to actually buy what you’re selling, what do you do after the sale to make them feel good (or even ecstatic) about their purchase?

Add a little punch to your communication process

MOO.com, producers of high quality ecofriendly business cards, took what would normally be a bland, matter-of-fact order confirmation email and made it fun–something that’s much more engaging for customers.

Read more...

What makes a great in-store display?

My local Giant Eagle is at it again. This time, they’ve created a massive wall (and I mean wall) of Pepsi just in time for March Madness. But the sheer size of their in-store promotion is only part of what makes it a source of creative inspiration for entrepreneurs and small business owners.

What else can we take away that could help drive sales and engage customers? Let’s take a look at following four key elements:

Location. Giant Eagle’s display is located just inside of their front entryway—space most other retailers waste by using it as storage for hundreds of empty shopping carts. By using their entryway, every customer will see their display on the way in and on the way out.

Theme. The Pepsi display incorporated both their hometown Pittsburgh Panther’s men’s basketball team and the NCAA basketball tournament which establishes a local connection to a major sporting event–something that might sound obvious but that many business owners fail to do with marketing campaigns focusing on a local audience.

Potential “add on” sales. What goes better with Pepsi than chips? At the edges of their display, Giant Eagle did a great job of incorporating complementary items–a key element of any effective sales strategy.

Value or potential savings. It’s one thing to say an item is on sale, but it’s another to really drive that message home by highlighting value or how much money your customers could save.

You don’t have to be a big grocery store to use in-store displays and visual merchandising to drive sales and engage with your customers. Don’t be afraid to incorporate any or all of the elements mentioned above to see what resonates best with your target audience.

Fast Company Blog: Will Barnes & Noble’s New Retail Strategy Help Save the Day?

Borders files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Local and regional booksellers continue to consolidate stores or close their doors all together. For many, it’s already too late to change direction on a rudderless ship that has been left in the wake of the rapid decline in hard copy book sales. One national retailer, on the other hand, is using a change in strategy to help weather the storm.

It had been a few weeks since I’d last visited my local Barnes & Noble. As I walked through the front door over the weekend, the first thing I noticed was a fully staffed Nook station located no more than 10 feet inside the store–strategically placed so it would be almost impossible to miss. In addition to the fancy NOOK color, they also had an extensive assortment of NOOK accessories. Complementing the kiosk, their in-store displays and signage also do a good job of highlighting a mix of both their print and digital book offerings.

But eReaders are only one aspect of their strategic shift.

Read more.