I don't normally write blog posts about work I've done for specific companies, but I've permission from the wonderful folks at Grasshopper (formerly GotVMail) to write about what they've done because I find it so inspiring.

On Monday, the company that was GotVMail launched a pretty bold campaign to re-brand themselves as Grasshopper. Change isn't always easy, but when there's a great idea behind it, it's a lot easier to galvanize support. That's the case with Grasshopper. While the company has always been a champion of entrepreneurs, the re-branding is all about inspiring entrepreneurs to change the world, and taking innovation to a whole new level. And we could all use some inspiration right now.

I was fortunate to be involved in several aspects of the re-branding but I'm really proud of one piece of work in particular: the company's inspirational video, "A Single Brilliant Idea." Producing and writing the video was amazing because I got to work with two incredibly talented individuals during production, one being Carly Comando, who created the original score. Carly is best known for writing the score for the Noah Kalina "Everyday" viral video and for music she's provided for the NBA's "Where Amazing Happens" campaign. Ben White was the motion designer on the project. I feel so grateful to have found Ben, because he understood what I was going for with the video, and he brought a lot of passion to the project. I feel fortunate to have collaborated with these two creative people.

UPDATE: Many people have been asking for the name of the track Carly created for the Grasshopper video. It's called "Chain Reaction" and it will be available for purchase on iTunes at the end of June or early July.

Without further ado, I'd like to share the video with you:

Growing up just a few minutes outside of New York City, I spent a lot of time venturing into the urban playground just across the Hudson River. Over the years, I navigated between the East and West sides, uptown and downtown, and in college, discovered which diners stayed open late enough to serve French fries at 4 AM. Whenever someone visited and went to "the city" with me, I was the unofficial tour guide of the group, trying to explain the lay of the land to wide-eyed travelers.

Over the years, I became a fan of sketching simple pocket visual aids to help inform visitors about the neighborhoods that comprised the borough of Manhattan (geek alert). They certainly weren't detailed maps--those would've been too overwhelming and were, of course, ubiquitous--but they helped visitors understand the geography of the city at a glance. They were perfect for getting "lost in the city" without really doing so. It made visiting much more manageable.

As a lover of maps, you can imagine my delight when I found Here & There: A Horizonless Projection. They're offering a limited run of gigantic (three feet by two feet), high resolution projections of Manhattan. If you're a geek who enjoys a good map, or if you just want to get a visual sense of Manhattan, this is a truly wonderful thing.

I don't have to buy your product. In fact, I can turn to your competitor(s) at any point before a transaction--or after one--if I'm not satisfied with the customer service you offer. Since customer service requires communicating with customers, it's important you create effective content for all the stages of customer engagement. From the first time customers visit your website to when they send you comments or questions via email, you have the opportunity to make a lasting impression on prospective buyers. If you use an automated email response that doesn't acknowledge you've even read a customer's questions, or if when you do respond, you're short and you don't thank someone for considering your product or service, they're not going to buy anything from you.

You'd think the aforementioned rules of sales engagement would be obvious, but for some online companies, it's clearly not. I was reminded of this recently when I contacted a company about a product that was out of stock on their website, but available for "pre-order." The website offered very little information about how the pre-order process worked. Since I was interested in the product, I sent an email requesting more info (this site had no contact phone number--that should've sent up a red flag for me). After I sent my first email, I received an automated response that in no way answered my question, and didn't even indicate I'd be getting a real response anytime soon. To make matters worse, when I pointed out my question wasn't answered through this form response, I received a reply without a greeting, and only a short, rude note. Needless to say, no matter how much I liked the product, I won't be purchasing it from this online retailer.

The point of this post is to emphasize one simple rule all businesses (small or large) should keep in mind: good content (copy) is a sales tool, and you shouldn't skimp on it when interacting with customers off your website, either via email or even Twitter. This is especially true for small businesses just starting out. Treat customer communications not only as a situation in which you're obligated to answer questions, but as a valuable opportunity to sell your company and make me buy your product.

And for any business owner that thinks customer email interaction is a "waste of time," you might want to consider supplying informative and adequate content on your website to avoid a flood of questions via email later on.