I have never worn high heels…honest! This Saturday 2pm at The Green in Dayton I will be sporting some cute pumps.
My neighbor Marty convinced me to enter “Hunks in Heels”, a relay race with a bunch of guys wearing women’s high heels. Clothes that Work is putting this all together to raise money to help women and men with proper work clothes and coaching to secure jobs!!
Great photo opportunities are guaranteed.
– Bill
Join Susan at the Springboro Relay for life starting at 3pm on May 22 and going to 9am on May 23, this is a fun fundraising event for the whole family! Susan tell us there is going to be lots of music and activities throughout the night. relayforlife.org/springboro
– Bill
Kimberly at the VA Hospital in Dayton, Ohio recently created a new “Stairway to Wellness” campaign. She knew that taking the stairs vs the elevator would be a small step that could make a big impact on the health and wellness of employees. However getting people to take the industrial stairwells at the VA would be a challenge.
One of the first things Kimberly did was call on Nova for interior graphics. Nova created large murals using digital wallpaper at each landing in the stairwells. Kimberly also added music to add to the experience. The campaign created a buzz and continues to be a huge success. She doubled her participation goals! Check out Kimberly’s report.
– Bill
I went to an AMA meeting at Carillon Park last week. The topic was “The Future Role of Marketing in the Organization”. While we were surrounded by the sounds of change at Carillon around us (hammers, saws, lights flickering, etc…), we were also discussing the changes happening in marketing! Two things that struck me, one was the concept of convergence. Integrating traditional forms of marketing (direct mail, brochures, radio, TV) with newer forms (social media, Web site, inbound marketing, landing pages, PURLS, SEO, email). the mix and what channels you use depends on your target markets!
– Bill
Marketing need polish? Here are a few tips that will blast away the dust bunnies and generate leads and get clean results.
1. It’s All About Them
Ask your target markets for their wants and needs. Their concerns are the fuel for your marketing efforts and future solutions.
2. Scrub-A-Dub-Dub
Get all of your marketing materials and promotions together and give them a good scrubbing! From your business cards to your Web site, make sure all are focused on customers needs first, not just describing your products and services.
3. Load up on the Right Blend
Where do your prospects get the information they need? Load up online with Inbound, value driven marketing on your Web site and connect your clients and prospects to your content through social networks. Integrate and follow up with conventional print collateral to secure the order.
4. Murky Must Go
Wimpy or weak graphics, identity and marketing materials will get ignored or trashed. Messaging has to stand out, focused, helpful and with a great call to action.
5. Shining Stars
Personalized offers and messaging with email, variable printing and pURLs (personalized URLs) have been proven stars. The closer you get to 1:1 marketing, the higher your success rate.
– Bill
Nova Creative is celebrating 30 years in business this year. This is a very brief history of how Dan and Larry started Nova (just in case you didn’t know). Founded in September 1980, the company began as J&S Graphic Services with Dan Foley serving as President and CEO. In 1986, Larry Knapp joined Dan as a partner/owner and the company registered as an Ohio corporation, changing the name to Nova Creative Group, Inc. In 2008, Nova acquired Cho Creative, Inc., another local design and communications firm with more than 13 years of experience serving IT leaders in Dayton and around the country. This move strengthened our commitment to design and service excellence by expanding our talent pool and capabilities to meet clients’ changing needs. One thing has always stayed the same, our focus on our client’s success!
– Bill
I just finished a webinar by Chris Brogan on building communities. These are a few suggestion from Chris:
Social Media and Building Community (GF201)
– Bill
After you do a Google search, look in the upper left for “show options”. You can sort your results by blog, images, post date etc. Pretty darn cool!
– Bill
I was talking to my friend Felix and he wanted to know what won the nine Greater Dayton Advertising Awards we were talking about in an earlier post. The event was held at the Masonic Center (pretty cool by the way) and all the work in the show was top notch. We were glad to be in the show!
These are the awards:
– Bill
Well I took another online class and you get to hear about it. This class was another in a series from Inbound Marketing University.
This is why everything is focused on the web:
Need I say more? Having a site that gets good ranking is a critical element of your marketing mix. There are three thinks that are important when optimizing your site:
Keywords: What are your customers and prospects using to find what you sell??
Built to be search friendly: If you have a Flash site, you are invisible to search engines. Title tags, canonical navigation, internal links, html and xml site maps, alt atags for images all make you more visible to search engines. It also helps if you have a system for new content (blog) to keep that content fresh!
Link Building: Getting links from other sites into your site is important. Create content that is worth valuable and traffic will start to come. Use social networking, PR, email, and the kitchen sink to direct people to the content that will help them.
SEO Crash Course to Get Found (GF102)
– Bill