Social Media Marketing at Ad-Tech

November 10, 2011 by 4 Comments

Some quick notes from yesterday at ad-tech. We stayed in the social media track, because there were interesting topics up, and I was excited to see Chris Brogan, whose blog I read religiously, in person!

David Fischer, the Vice President of Advertising and Global Operations at Facebook, revealed that if you reach out to your fans and their friends, you get 81 times the distribution. Nielsen statistics also indicate that 68% are more likely to remember an ad with social context, twice as likely to remember the message and four times as likely to buy.

So how do you build your brand on Facebook?

  1. Connect
  2. Engage
  3. Inspire

Well, that sounds easy! Also remember, your social media strategy is really your people strategy. Create personalized experiences and let people share them. Read more of this post

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Designing Our Website Icon/Favicon

November 3, 2011 by Leave a comment

How do you make your brand stronger down to the smallest detail? How can you enhance your website and stand out from competitors and other companies? Try using a favicon, which is also known as a favorites icon, to display in the address bar when your site is open in the web browser. You can see them today on most popular websites, such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Facebook Icon Twitter Icon LinkedIn Icon
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn

Without an icon, your site can look flat or worse, like you don’t care enough to create one.

Affinity Express didn’t have a favicon, so I suggested creating one and took on the task of designing a 16×16-pixel icon that could also be used in various media such as Facebook. I wanted our favicon to convey creativity because we offer advertising and marketing production solutions and have a team of more than 900 designers. With this in mind, I developed several design studies that were true to our corporate branding.

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Repurposing Content

October 21, 2011 by 3 Comments

100% RecyclableAs a marketer, I’m constantly inundated with advice on what I should be doing. Apparently, marketers are now publishers, but not the old-fashioned magazine publishers who only needed to worry about one issue for the month. We have blog posts to write (and they’d better be long and well-written and useful and frequent), newsletters to send out regularly to our subscribers, website copy to frequently update (to catch the attention of the elusive search engines), the Facebook page to continually update and monitor, the Twitter account to be briefly witty on, the press releases to send out and reach the media, sales collateral to keep engaging and current, events to plan for, and maybe ads to create and manage. Don’t forget the internal communication: at Affinity Express, for example, we have a quarterly newsletter, as well as memos and posters we often put up to inform our internal audience.

How does a small marketing team with limited resources do all this?

1. Read widely.

Not only is reading about industry news and best practices essential for you to learn, it also helps you think and may provide material for a blog post. I’ve blogged about a book I read (and that was a fiction book and not about marketing or business, so don’t be narrow in your selection), articles that I disagreed with, a blog post and speech that inspired me.  I also routinely cull industry articles and put in a few of the best links into our monthly newsletters.

2. Dig into what’s already available.

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Creative Blocks: How to Work Through and Find Your Inspiration

October 19, 2011 by 1 Comment

“The creative mind of an artist is an expression of his soul,” but what happens when your creativity dries up? We’ve all experienced it: the ideas aren’t coming, the clock is ticking and the client (or the boss) is waiting.

It is very human to face creative blocks, regardless of the type of work you do. As a senior designer for a dynamic company with a heavy workload and tight deadlines, I don’t have the luxury of letting them get the best of me.

As Professor Robert Winston says, great composers have come through creative blocks to produce outstanding works. That’s great to know, but how do you get over it and FAST?

1.  Manage expectations

When you realize you are stuck, it is important to manage your client or supervisor to make him or her feel that you have everything covered. Suggest concepts, get feedback and provide updates (basically, appear like you don’t have a block). Ask plenty of questions, as you never know if an answer or insight will suddenly solve the problem for you. Either way, the communication will help the person understand the process and feel engaged, which buys you some time. Read more of this post

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Marketing for the Holidays

October 11, 2011 by Leave a comment

Start preparing for the holidays now!When the weather is warm, the sun is shining and kids are out of school, I think about . . . the winter holidays. It sounds counterintuitive but this is the best time to put together plans, place orders and get ahead of the requirements of the season. I realize the summer has already passed, but hope this post will help you catch up!

The best advice of all is to start as soon as possible. These days, holiday decorations go on sale the day after Halloween with good reason—many people start planning and purchasing early. That’s why, whether you are a B2C or B2B company, it pays to have a roadmap for the holidays before you start hearing carols and seeing inflatable snow men on your neighbors’ lawns. Read more of this post

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Recreating A Printed Document

September 23, 2011 by Leave a comment

From time to time we are sent scans of printed documents and asked to make changes. This may seem like a simple thing to do, but it can actually be quite challenging. Even changing a phone number can lead to a great deal of work and take many hours depending on what is provided.

Here’s an example of an order we received recently that will help me illustrate this point.

Front of postcard

This is the front side of the postcard (I blacked out the company details)

Read more of this post

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Eight Tips on Organizing a Great Event

September 21, 2011 by 2 Comments

Event planning often falls under marketing, whether that means trade shows, client visits or corporate meetings. And if you are a small- to medium-sized business, the chances are you don’t have a budget to hire an outside firm or a consultant. We’re just back from the Affinity Express annual strategy workshop and I’m glad to say that it went quite well, from the hotel to the meals to the events. Based on this recent experience, here are some suggestions to increase the likelihood of success for your event, regardless of the type of meeting or the industry you are in.

1. Visualize the Details

This is probably the tactic that has helped me the most, especially when it comes to large events. You have to know the venues, details and agenda better than anyone. Plus, you should see them from the perspective of your participants. When you envision through how guests will enter, what they will see, what they will need and what they will expect, you can effectively cover all of the details. Your goal is to have the attendees relax and feel completely taken care of, even when you’re having a straightforward business meeting.

This is one reason why you see signs with group names and directions in hotels when there are events. Having people wander around aimlessly, wondering where they are supposed to go, is not the best start to a gathering. The annual event for the Chicago chapter of Go Red For Women was a great example of effective signage. It was a large hotel and there was no doubt where to report, check your coat, find the ballroom, etc. They answered all the questions before they could be asked (and we were proud to have helped design the signage).

Dinner at the strategy meeting

Dinner was a time to relax and have more informal conversations

For our dinners around the strategy meeting, I had perused the menus and arranged for special requirements in advance. Each day, I arrived early to meet the servers, select wine and appetizers, discuss the approach with the staff and ensure everything was set up the way I wanted. Over the course of four days, my boss never started a question with, “Did you . . .?” When our guests arrived, they didn’t have to think, just enjoy themselves, which they certainly did. I’m not naming names but there was spontaneous karaoke at one point! Read more of this post

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Working with Linked Files in an InDesign Document

September 13, 2011 by Leave a comment

What do you do when a customer provides an InDesign document for which the linked files are either missing or need to be re-linked to the document? Here are some tips.

Modified Links

If you open an InDesign file that contains linked files that were changed since the last time the InDesign file was saved, you’ll see this message.

modified links

Read more of this post

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Generating New Ideas for Blog Posts

September 9, 2011 by Leave a comment

Blogger's blockIt is blog publishing day and you are staring at a blank screen but your to-do list has reached epic proportions. All of your contributors are mysteriously offline. What can you do to get the creative juices flowing so you can post something other than a blog about writer’s block?

Here is the list I run through when all else fails.

1.     Interview Someone

I know from experience that it is almost impossible to push someone (especially someone who isn’t a professional writer or marketer) into sitting down and quickly turning out an insightful post. Instead, schedule a 15-minute call and submit questions in advance. Then take notes on the conversation. You’ll be able to ask follow-up and clarifying questions much easier this way. Then you can get some supporting research and other opinions while your subject scurries off to other tasks. You can also interview outside contacts, customers, analysts, etc. Just decide in advance what you want to know so your conversation has focus.

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Learn Marketing from the Competition

September 6, 2011 by 5 Comments

Spy on your competitors' marketing activities How much time and effort you need to spend on marketing depends partly on what your competitors are doing. Are they doing something that you aren’t, and that might work for you? Are they getting a lot of visibility online, and you need to catch up fast? Or are they relatively clueless, and you just need to keep on doing what you’re doing?

Here are some areas you can easily look at and see how your competitors fare. All you spend is some time at your computer.

1. Website

How effective is your website versus your competitors? It’s time to find out.

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Colors for Print: Matching and Separating

August 23, 2011 by 3 Comments

Working with colors is par for the course for a printer or print designer. In my first post, I’ve put together some basic tips on working well with color.

Matching Colors

Designing something new for a customer, and they ask you to match the color(s) of an existing document? There is more to it than you might think. Read more of this post

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Cool Things Newspapers Are Doing on Facebook

August 11, 2011 by 2 Comments

You’ve heard it before: newspapers should be using Facebook. But what should they be doing?

Here’s what some of the best newspaper pages on Facebook are doing right. (Instead of looking through all newspaper pages I could find on Facebook, I started out with this list. I also included a few from here.)

Read on to see what Facebook features you should be taking advantage of (even if you’re not in the news business). Read more of this post

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A Five-Step Recipe for Marketing Success

August 9, 2011 by 2 Comments

Cinnamon pecan buns

My cinnamon pecan buns

You’ve already heard that I work long hours juggling multiple priorities in my role with Affinity Express. When I show up at the office armed with trays of decadent desserts my coworkers, I invariably hear the question: “How do you find the time?” 

The answer is that I make the time because baking not only gives me a welcome break from work but also reinforces the way I approach marketing and gives me an opportunity to think through more complex challenges. Let me explain.

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5 Steps to Ensuring Quality Through Training

July 22, 2011 by 1 Comment

Classroom trainingFor an organization with a unique business model like ours, it’s not enough to hire designers who are knowledgeable about design; we also need our employees who can deliver on client requirements, whether that means simply following instructions or getting creative.

With clients being half the world away, as distant culturally as they are physically, this is a challenge we deal with every day:

How do we ensure that our people deliver quality designs, every single time?

When I asked one of our associate managers for training how she thinks quality becomes ingrained into organizational culture, she said:

“Training has to be taken very seriously. We have to bridge the resources we get and the expectations of the client with training. Not merely classroom training, but on-the-job training has to be handled sensitively, so that best practices are shared.”

Here’s how we do it. Read more of this post

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Moving from Success to Transformation: Driving Better Performance

June 30, 2011 by 1 Comment

Crossing over to the other sideIf we look at the stages of evolution in companies, they go from survival to success to transformation. I believe we have tasted success at Affinity Express and are ready to make the next move to transformation. But as we prepare ourselves for the journey, it is helpful to consider the analogy of “crossing the Rubicon.” When we transition from “I would like to” to “I will,” we cross a personal Rubicon. After that step, there should be no hesitation and no way back.

The metaphor of crossing the Rubicon comes from Roman history when Julius Caesar decided to cross the river Rubicon with the words “ Alea iacta est,” which means “the die is cast.” He had made a decision to return with his legions to Rome. That meant war. Once he entered the Roman heartland across the Rubicon, there was no alternative and no way back. In the same way, managers are able to achieve the impossible only when they are able to harness the power of their will, that is, only when they make this personal crossing of the Rubicon. The journey from “I would like to” to “I will” and happens in three phases: forming the intention, crossing the Rubicon, and protecting the intention.

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Marketing on a Budget

June 14, 2011 by 2 Comments

Web ad designed by Affinity Express

Web ad designed by Affinity Express

When you are a small- to medium-sized business, you have a few options when it comes to marketing your company:

  • Hire an agency—“No way, that’s too expensive!”
  • Do it yourself design—“That takes so much time and I’d have to learn different software for all the online and print vehicles!”
  • Don’t do anything—“Yeah, I’m sure potential clients will find out about my company by telepathy and break down my door to buy my products and services!”

Many Affinity Express clients are large companies that provide services to small- to medium-sized businesses who are often challenged because they have limited resources for marketing—small teams, low budgets and a lack of expertise, especially when it comes to newer interactive tactics. So, as a company, we understand the problems.

But as a professional, I live with this every day.

The Dilemma

When I joined the company, and for several years afterward, “the Marketing Department” was Kelly Glass. My budget covered a salary and almost nothing else. Read more of this post

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How to Be an Effective Conference Call Participant

May 4, 2011 by 1 Comment

Conference callI’ve mentioned before that the virtual world at Affinity Express means we have many conference calls on a range of topics all week long. In another post, I suggested ways to structure and lead these sessions to produce results as the organizer or facilitator. Today, I wanted to take a different angle and cover ways to improve the experience for you as a participant and for the rest of the team.

Prepare

Read agendas, project lists and other documentation sent out ahead of the meeting. Scanning material while trying to listen means you are not giving your full attention to the conversation and you missed the opportunity to ask questions or get clarifications prior to everyone dialing in. That wastes time and leads to longer, repetitive calls that waste everyone else’s time. Recently, I was in a meeting where a salesperson brought up a new product that was under consideration for development. It was clear he did not listen the last time or read the minutes because he was actively selling it when we de-prioritized the offering. We had to “remind” him that we were not moving forward. That was ten minutes of our lives we’ll never get back! Read more of this post

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Building Better Habits

April 29, 2011 by 1 Comment

WorkoutMost people, including me, usually get excited about a new initiative and are full of energy for some time. However, we often lose momentum and fall back, if not exactly where we started, far from where we wanted to go with only some incremental change. And then we look for the next initiative.

How do we keep the momentum going? How do we transform a new initiative into a habit that improves our business or life?

When I was a child I was told that if you do anything twenty-one times it becomes a habit. A simple trick! In business, an initiative like Six Sigma isn’t going to work unless it becomes a habit for all employees associated with the process. Once it becomes a habit, it’s followed in due course. That’s when the consequences of the initiative—the improvements we expect it to bring to the business or to life—will follow. Read more of this post

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5 Rules For Prioritizing That I Live By

April 13, 2011 by 3 Comments

How do you prioritize among your many tasks?I used to be a proud self-professed perfectionist. I’d spend days over one campaign email: researching, testing, editing, trying to get it just right. Then I got this job. (Kidding.) (Umm, not really.)

Now I have to turn out more work in a week than I probably did in a whole year then. And I quickly realized that my ‘perfectionist’ habits would hold me back if I didn’t learn to use them to my advantage. Also, I’d much rather write a blog post than research that new product we’re developing: and if I didn’t hang the latter one higher in the list and put an asterisk next to it, it would never get done.

I was a little surprised when my boss told me I’m good at judging priorities on my long list of tasks and doing just the few that will get us through that week (I’m also very good at procrastinating: watch out for that blog post.)

So, from a late-learner, here are some tips on prioritizing right (because you know as well as I do, you’re not getting everything on your plan done in time.) Read more of this post

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12 Rules for Managing Conference Calls to Get Better Results

April 11, 2011 by 2 Comments

Conference callAnother consequence of being a company with employees scattered across many locations (including our three offices, client sites and employee’s homes) is that a lot of the communication that doesn’t take place via email happens over conference calls. My mornings are often so packed with calls it’s difficult to take a bathroom break. (If you think I’m exaggerating, this week I have my weekly team call, calls with each sales team, weekly calls with the new product development team, a call to discuss improvements to our website, a couple of calls with the CEO, a call with a client, a brainstorming session with the team, a call with HR . . . )

So how do I keep sane through all the calls? How do I make sure I disconnect from one call and start another while ensuring I make the best of my time and the time of the other parties in the conference?

Here are the rules I follow when I am hosting or organizing a conference call. Read more of this post

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