A new way of collaborating

Miro describes itself as a collaborative whiteboard platform. We describe it as the best thing that’s happened to business since the internet. Okay, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but we are seriously obsessed with it. We’ve been using it for a few months now in our weekly strategy meetings and not only are we keeping track of all our brainstorming ideas in one place, we’re having a blast with all the fun tools it provides, like post-it notes, animated reactions, drawing tools, and way more. If you’ve got a team that’s even partly remote, you should give it a try. 

Never a dull moment

New and former clients are keeping us hopping with a myriad of marketing requests and we’re answering. We’re helping a local nonprofit raise awareness of their capabilities in working with the disabled community, we’re creating direct mail and email campaigns for a financial institution targeting small business clients, we’re working on a logo and campaign design for a higher-education client, and Megan is consulting with a marketing supplier who is considering advertising and marketing agencies as a new market.

Always learning

We attended MarketingProfs semi-annual B2B conference and came away with a healthy mix of learning moments and confirmation that our strategies are on track with industry trends. Some highlights include:

• Thinking differently about problem-solving
  John Jantsch’s suggested looking at the customer journey from back to front: review the contact page first, and then walk backwards to find disconnections in the journey (before your customer does).

• Breaking down your brand story
  Nick Westergaard broke down the brand story in three stages from Context to Contrast to Call to Action. Context: your protagonist should always be your customer (understand what’s in their way). Contrast: there is no story without contrast/conflict – everybody loves to hear about overcoming obstacles. Call to Action: please, please have a call to action at the conclusion.

• Email best practices for improving results
  Kaela Mazzola presented a pragmatic approach: Don’t forget to do list hygiene, plan a subscriber reengagement campaign for lapsed customers and delete inactive subscribers periodically. Don’t focus on opens alone. Also be aware of the new privacy options through Apple updates that can potentially affect accurate opens.

• Website copy that attracts
  A favorite quote about how your website should function is from Liz Moorehead: “Your website isn’t a sales pitch, it’s a mirror.” Your customer should see their situation and their needs being solved written in the copy.

AFTER HOURS

After booking a trip nearly two years ago that was supposed to happen in May of 2020, Danette finally made it to Peru. And It was well worth the wait. She got to know the city of Cusco while acclimating to its 11K foot elevation in preparation for four days of mountain biking. After taking in spectacular views of the Peruvian Andes by bike and by train, her trip was topped off by a visit to Machu Picchu—voted in 2007 as one of the New Seven Wonders of the World—to witness first-hand the incredible building skills of the Incas, who constructed a massive mountainside community nearly 600 years ago.

After many delays and with much anticipation, Sheryl’s daughter, Kalli, participated in an in-person ceremony for the graduating class of 2020 from the College of William & Mary. W&M is big on tradition and is the second oldest institution of higher learning in the U.S. The college felt it was important for the 2020 class to be officially recognized in a commencement ceremony, which took place over homecoming weekend. Special events included the Bell Wringing, Candlelight Ceremony, class of 2020 dance, and plenty of homecoming festivities. Kalli has a major in Neuroscience with a minor in Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies.

Sam scheduled two years’ worth of weekend activities into a single season. He attended the wedding of a close friend in Chippewa Falls, visited another friend’s cabin in the Boundary Waters, and treated a friend who was visiting from out of town to a trip to the Renaissance Festival. With more travel ahead and two more weddings coming up, there will be no shortage of “after hours” news from Sam in the next few newsletters.