You’d expect a marketing professional to have a way with words, and Tommy Redmond, president of Octane Marketing Solutions, does not disappoint. “You can be great at your business in every way, but if you don’t have a good Web presence, it’s like showing up at your senior prom in a T-shirt with spaghetti stains on it,” says Redmond, who founded the Marietta-based marketing company two and a half years ago.

Octane numbers as one of several Cobb County-based marketing companies that works to help their clients tailor a message for 21st century business. “It used to be that marketing was limited to four areas: newspapers, the Yellow Pages, radio and television. With the advent of today’s digital world, we want to make sure our clients are fully represented on all the new areas out there,” says Redmond.

While well-positioned billboards and other old-school marketing techniques can still bring results, today’s high-tech landscape can require some new strategies.

Research. A crucial aspect of successful marketing occurs before any of the actual marketing takes place. “Most businesses fail in the first two years. You might have a great idea, but not everyone else may agree,” says Heather Pennington, president and CEO of Kennesaw’s Day Three Media. “With market research, you can make sure everyone else thinks it’s a great idea, too.”

Gordon O’Neill, CEO and chief integration strategist of O’Neill Communications, points out that the World Wide Web makes research easier and more accessible than ever before. “Today’s Internet allows even the smallest company to conduct its own research, and inexpensive research tools are out there.”

Angelia Pressley, managing partner of Smyrna’s AP Advertising and PR, explains how computerized tracking methods allow big companies to amass data and craft highly specific messages to their customers. “[The Internet] creates an opportunity to build demographics about a customer,” says Pressley. “If I’m online at AT&T or Comcast, advertisers can see where I’m going through my IP address and click back to me with an ad. Whether I’m looking for shoes, a new car or a wedding gown, they’ll know immediately.”

Small companies can use the same kind of tools to gather information about their clients and send them highly-focused messages. “A small retailer can build a customer email list to remind them of upcoming sales, service packaging offers, new classes and more,” says O’Neill. “It’s very instrumental in building a relationship, and it’s easy and inexpensive to maintain.”

The Website. Marketers almost speak in a single voice about the importance of a company’s web presence in today’s environment. “As all roads lead to Rome, now all roads lead to your website, whether it’s on a PC platform or, increasingly, on mobile platforms,” says Redmond.

Just as prospective romantic partners Google each other before getting together, so do prospective business partners. “After people meet you, the first thing they do is look at your website. It’s very important that the first three to five seconds make a good impression,” says Pennington. “Websites need to be aesthetically pleasing to the eye and Google friendly.”

The failure to maintain your website can be nearly as harmful as the failure to have one. “You should revisit your website at least once a year, asking questions like, ‘What changes have gone through the marketplace since then?’” says Pennington. “There’s nothing worse than going to a website, Facebook or LinkedIn page and finding it out of date.”

Marketing began migrating to the Internet in the late 1990s, but more recently, video elements have become increasingly prevalent in online messaging. “Society is moving toward video, and people are using it for business decisions,” says Pennington. “Your website should have a corporate video that sums up your elevator pitch: who you are, what you can offer, etc.”

Pennington describes how Day Three Media helped CBE, an Alabama-based point-of-sale and security product company, to keep pace with the times. “They’ve been around for 20 years and their website was eight or nine years old. They thought, ‘We’re very successful—why should we change anything?’” Pennington recalls. “We helped them look like what they should look like, if they’re competing in an up-to-date marketplace.”

Social Media. The term “Web 2.0” frequently serves as shorthand for the proliferation of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and others. “It’s so easy to do and so accessible, it’s easy to do wrong,” says Bonnie Buckner Reavis of Marietta’s Zenith Design Group, who points out how social networking’s simplicity can cause business owners to underestimate its impact. “Social media is one of the best ways to increase awareness, fairly inexpensively. A lot of companies will put an administrative person in charge of social media, but more people will see what that person is saying than will visit the company’s website.”

Simply having a presence on social media is only half of the job. “Everything needs to be written in a tone that could be printed on brochure or written for the website. One post written in the wrong tone or not vetted properly can undo a year’s worth of marketing,” says Reavis, who emphasizes that posts can’t be too impersonal, either. “You have to post as if the brand is a person, having a one-on-one dialogue. It needs to be casual and conversational. And if multiple people are maintaining the Facebook site, it still needs to have a single voice.”

Reavis finds that Facebook in particular lends itself to connecting with present and future customers, as opposed to one-way messaging. “Tweets are just statements, so not a lot of dialogue comes with them. People are comfortable on Facebook, which promotes dialogue.” Reavis advocates cultivating Facebook interactions as an ongoing process. “You need to monitor Facebook … It requires maintenance and someone to watch it, and not just from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.”

Branding. William Musial, creative director of Kennesaw design and branding studio Mopdog, learned a crucial lesson in branding from his own company. He incorporated as William Musial Advertising about 22 years ago, when the Internet was in its infancy. When it came time to choose a domain name, the company went with “Mopdog.com” after his two shaggy Shih Tzus. And Mopdog turned out to have legs.

“Those six letters changed our entire marketing and branding message. Nobody remembered the name ‘William Musial Advertising,’ but everyone remembered ‘Mopdog,’” says Musial. “My email was ‘topdog@mopdog,’ and people remembered that better than my own name.” Essentially, his customers told him which name and image proved most effective, demonstrating the importance of simple, flexible branding. Now, canine imagery romps playfully all over the Mopdog website.

Musial and other marketers frequently manage their clients’ brands to make them come across as leaders or experts in their respective industries. He cites as an example Mopdog’s client The Corridor Group, which specializes in home care and hospice consulting. “Over the last two years, we’ve really gotten them onto social media, talking about themselves and using HTML emails to promote their products,” he says. “Because of these things, they’ve gotten the reputation for being experts in their field.”

The Basics. Despite the dislocations of the rise of the Internet and the recent economic slump, old-fashioned face-to-face interactions still pay dividends. “The landscape is different. Because of the recession, people are value-driven. Large corporate companies scaled down their marketing dollars,” says Pressley. “But business has picked up [for] our events, which can provide a broader reach for fewer dollars.”

Pennington affirms the importance of trade shows and other events for maintaining an active presence in your community. “Sometimes it’s hard to measure ROI for events, but if you look at the long haul, the more you’re in the community, the more you build relationships, the better,” she says. “It’s easy to text and email, but personal connections still are very valuable.”

Companies who deal with a daily flood of email and other online communiqués might be more responsive to something tangible. “Really targeted direct mail is working as well as, if not better than, email,” says Musial. “It might be that email is overused. People get so many emails, they don’t read them all anymore, so people will respond to a really good piece of direct mail.”

Redmond points out how the personal touch can be lost to companies who outsource marketing services. “One of the biggest problems we see is outsourcing things overseas. We have our feet on the ground in local communities. You might find things that have been outsourced don’t speak to your local demographic. Then it’s like Bill Murray— ‘Lost in Translation.’”

Many of the companies that survived the economic downturn were able to adapt to changing times. Zenith Design Group helped landscaping company High Grove Partners take advantage of the economic slump. “They came to us and said that they wanted to take advantage of the fact that a lot of their competition had dropped off,” says Reavis. “We kept their logo but otherwise did completely new branding, with a new website and re-wrapped trucks. It’s not like we had a magic bullet, but we told them how to take advantage of depressed economy, because they had the capital to reinvest.”

For some companies, adaptation can mean playing to strengths outside a narrow definition of its brand. As Redmond explains, “We work with a local Goodyear dealership in East Cobb, and restructured their brand not only to emphasize what they do with tires, but also their service department, which was actually a major part of their business. We took them from zero visibility in the search engines and branded them in an extremely different way.”

Finally, it’s important that companies don’t jump the gun when they send out their message. “We only want to work with clients who have a product they’re ready to go to market with,” says Reavis. “Nothing will kill a good company quicker than great marketing without a product to support it.”

To borrow Redmond’s analogy, that’s like showing up at your senior prom in spotless, perfectly-tailored formalwear, only to discover that you’re a week early.

Being adept at typing on a computer does not mean that you are a good business communicator. It takes forethought and planning to make your business communications sing, and experts agree that even the most seasoned business professionals can use periodic refresher courses in communications. “Everyone can use improved communication skills,” says Ann Vancza, program director at the College of Continuing and Professional Education at Kennesaw State University. “The more clear and concise you can be in your communication, the better others will understand what you are saying. It is crucial for businesses to get their message across effectively and efficiently.”

However, “efficiently” does not necessarily mean quickly. The advent of technology may make professionals think that business communications are simpler these days, but that’s not really the case. “The changing requirements of the marketplace demand organizations maintain agile and responsive internal and external communication practices,” says Lawrence P. King, co-owner of consulting practice Deblar & Associates in Austell. He and Deborah King offer tailored staff training and organizational capacity building support.

“With business communication today, there seems to be that sense of urgency to connect as quickly as possible,” Vancza says. “Sometimes time is required to respond accurately, but we feel pressure to respond immediately.” She says that this sense of urgency tends to dilute the effectiveness of business communications, which can often be the backbone of a company’s success.

LaBrita Cash-Baskett, CCC-SLP, AM.APMP, president of Fundamental Focus, a training and development firm that specializes in business communications, agrees that effective communication can equal success. “Success in business communication is measured by achieving goals tied to the communication efforts and activities,” she says. “Indicators for performance on how executives are measured on leadership communication vary based on situational factors, individual competency and personality.” Using technology effectively to connect with customers and clients can set your business above the rest.

Stop and Make a Plan

Cash-Baskett points out that communications in today’s world add a layer of complexity, in part due to the immediacy of technology. “Communication is no longer one-way communication with time delays,” she says. “Today, real-time communication requires vocal, verbal and nonverbal behaviors in addition to good messaging and content. The fast rate at which new tools emerge may cause resistance to new tool adoption and use, increased costs and time.”

Cash-Baskett goes on to say that the lack of time to proof, edit and review messages can increase error rates and lead to unintended consequences. “Business professionals need to be mindful about impacts of decreased processing time in communications,” she says. “Less processing time may lead to greater impulsivity and make it hard to manage the risks of this behavior. When additional thinking time is required, it can sometimes be misinterpreted as lack of knowledge or engagement. Listening, waiting and processing are important to the communication process.”

In today’s fast-paced business world, many professionals forget the power of basic social graces. Many people use email, but they miss the subtle nuances and pleasantries of using a personalized salutation or closing. The communication and the reply are dominated by the need to get back to someone quickly. Formality is often forgotten, and with it, the tendency to plan and research well thought out responses.

“With the use of email as a main source of communication in business, we often relax our way of communicating.” Vancza says. “We tend to not have a formal greeting and closing with email as we would with a postal letter. With the instant communication we have available to us through email, texting, Twitter, etc., formal communication is not as prevalent.” Allowing your communications to become too casual can decrease their effectiveness while increasing the possibility of being misunderstood.

Teleconferences and Technology

The advent of telephone conference calls and FaceTime meetings can also affect business communications. Not being able to read body language—even though it is more efficient to do telephone meetings instead of face-to-face—can change the tenor of the communication process. While new ways of communicating, including Skype, Google Apps and WebEx offer quick connections, they can be even more effective when there is proper planning.

There is the convenience factor to consider with teleconferences and other communications technologies. With restricted travel budgets, many companies find it is easier and more cost-effective to get people with busy schedules together on a call or videoconference. “You can have a conference call anywhere, anytime these days,” Vancza says. “Video conferencing can save time and expense as well, but technology is changing so fast that what’s new today will soon be replaced by something else tomorrow. However, using tools such as FaceTime and Skype give conference calls and interviews a more personal approach.”

Cash-Baskett agrees that teleconferences have taken on a central role in business communication. “Although teleconferencing continues to allow collaboration, it is important to define the context and purpose for business communication to overcome common barriers,” she says. Use the same techniques for telephone and online conferences as you would for face-to-face meetings, by creating an agenda with action items and a follow-up report to delineate deadlines and responsibilities.

Training Promotes Growth

With the changing tide of technology, training is essential for effective communications, greater productivity and an increased bottom line. “A fully engaged, motivated and informed workforce is essential to ensure individuals and organizations meet goals and ambitions in a competitive environment,” Cash-Baskett says. “It’s extremely important to help people develop increased awareness, understanding, practical strategies and information to improve their personal communication style and their interpersonal communication skills. If they can recognize communication barriers and learn to build trust in their communications, they will become even more successful communicators and business people.”

Cobb County business owners can take advantage of local resources for business communications training, including Deblar & Associates, Fundamental Focus and programs at Kennesaw State University. This training can result in more effective collaboration, improved delivery of products and services, positive customer service and increased productivity. While it does require a time commitment, training in the newest techniques of business communications can net positive results. “Executives are caught between what they learned early in their careers and the need to keep up with the new ways to communicate,” Vancza says. “We can all use training to brush up on our business writing and communications skills.”

I consider it a good thing that it took me longer than usual to settle on what I was going to write about this month. That means there has been little going on, either in my life or in local news that has ruffled my feathers as of late. So I went to the place I am usually guaranteed to find something to rant about: my Facebook news feed. And, lo and behold, inspiration struck.

Perhaps you have heard about what I’m calling “Cheerios-gate.” In a nutshell, Cheerios (you know, breakfast cereal … ground-breaking stuff here) has stirred up a hornet’s nest of controversy with its latest TV ad. So much so that parent company General Mills had to disable the comments feature on its YouTube page. If you haven’t heard about Cheerios-gate, you might be wondering, “What on earth could Cheerios have done to offend so many people?” The answer is: They featured an interracial family in their ad. In the 30-second spot, a (white) woman talks to her (mixed) daughter about the health benefits of Cheerios, and when the well-intentioned girl learns about how Cheerios are good for her (black) dad’s heart, she covers him in cereal while he naps on the couch. Everyone I know (myself included) gets a little misty-eyed at this innocent display of care and devotion between a child and her parents, but apparently more than a few of our fellow citizens were so offended by this overt display of diversity that they took to the Internet to voice their (racist) objections.

I have been around the Internet long enough to know that there is a certain subset of the population that will hide behind the anonymity of cyberspace to spout heinous things they wouldn’t dare say in front of their mothers. Heck, even some of my favorite puppy videos on YouTube are followed by random and hateful comments, and who doesn’t love puppies? I also know that some of these people will say things they don’t necessarily believe in order to bait others into pointless, scorn-filled screeds. But as my mother always said, “You can’t fix stupid.”

However, I am still hopeful enough (or naïve enough, whichever you prefer) to believe that you can fix ignorance. Let’s just do a quick reality check: The year is 2013. We are nearly 50 years removed from the passage of the Civil Rights Act and more than 50 years removed from desegregation. So it makes me wonder, where will we be in another 50 years? Are there things that seem bizarre to us now that will be completely normal two generations from now? Here’s another reality check: Interracial families are not unusual. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, interracial marriages account for 1 in every 12 marriages in the United States. That is a 28 percent increase over a period of 10 years. Interestingly, there are actually more interracial marriages taking place in the South (14 percent of the total) than in the Northeast (13 percent) and Midwest (11 percent), so regional biases also seem to be going by the wayside.

Kudos to Cheerios for recognizing the importance of family, while ignoring what that family looks like. “At Cheerios, we know there are many kinds of families and we celebrate them all,” Camille Gibson, Cheerios vice president of marketing, told Gawker. As an aunt to four (mixed) nieces and nephews, I look forward to the day when stories like this no longer cross my news feed. I will gladly find my inspiration for this column elsewhere.