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Katie Robertson – Public Relations Account Executive   The saying “you learn something new every day,” may be a bit of a cliché, but it does hold an element of truth. Every industry is intricate, with nuances that can only be understood through experience. While there is likely not a new and distinct lesson each day, as time passes, any employee will deepen their understanding of their industry. Not only is this an asset to the company from an employee skills perspective, but it is also an asset on the marketing front. Thought leadership is an often under-utilized marketing strategy that positions a brand as a valuable resource in their industry to gain the trust of prospective consumers. While it is more subtle than a traditional approach to advertising, it offers a number of applications and benefits that make it a key component of well-rounded marketing. Natural Leader Shared knowledge can fit into marketing more seamlessly than most people would think. There is no shortage of hosts for that kind of content. Many brands will start out by building a blog on their website. This creates a strong foundation of topics and knowledge that can be pulled into social media posts, eblasts, articles and more. Owned media like a blog is completely managed by the brand in both the content creation and publication. This allows full control over messaging and formatting, which can be a significant benefit. However, visibility can be a challenge, as driving traffic to the blog is completely dependent on the brand itself. Other ways to share thought leadership with a bit more public attention can be found through public relations (PR). Thought leadership PR starts with a pitch, such as submitting an article abstract to a magazine editor, suggesting a guest to a podcast host or introducing an expert for a reporter to interview. This kind of content creation is a collaboration between the brand and the publisher, with both working together to build and promote the story. In exchange for the bigger platform, these stories are often less promotional in nature than blogs. However, if managed correctly, they can generate trust with the target audiences that creates leads. Penny for Your Thoughts One significant benefit of thought leadership content is that its publication is generally free. There may be some costs associated with it, such as promoted social media posts or paying a writer/PR practitioner to coordinate earned media appearances. However, unlike ads, there is no cost associated with purchasing the space itself. The non-promotional nature of thought leadership content can also be to the brand’s strategic advantage. In many industries, particularly B2B, potential purchasers want to be assured that they are purchasing from brands that understand them. Whether it’s commenting on well-known trends, explaining challenges in the industry or providing insight for what’s to come, thought leadership content demonstrates that knowledge and builds lasting trust and loyalty with the target audience. Marketing often focuses on the attributes of the specific product or service that is being sold. Thought leadership takes a broader approach, instead highlighting the values of the brand and the expertise of its employees. Working in tandem, these two strategies offer well-rounded messaging that presents a brand in the best way possible.

Ashlyn Busse – Senior Graphic Designer   Visual brand building has to start from somewhere, and, like any good marketing initiative, the first phase should consist of thorough research. Though the findings will always be different, the method of researching for design tends to almost universally follow these four steps: Step 1: Meet the Audience When a new client comes onboard, the agency should already have a decent understanding of what its industry does and a high-level overview of some design standards. However, creating a visual brand requires a deeper dive into the identity of the audience. For example, a product may be developed for the veterinary industry, but it can be sold to veterinarians, specialists, technicians, pet owners or other stakeholders within that market. Each of these audiences have a different level of knowledge and respond to a different kind of messaging and technical language. In addition to the audience impacting how the brand is developed, it also influences where the brand will be implemented. Different groups will seek information and goods/services to purchase from different channels, and knowing the habits of a client’s specific audience allows for effective lead generation and management. Step 2: Assess the Competition After establishing a solid understanding of the audience, a designer can turn to reviewing content created by the client’s competitors. This is not done with the intent to steal ideas, rather to look for trends within the market to help the designer meet the audience’s expectations while still standing out. Analyzing competitors can also provide additional insights into website and product design, sales channels and unfilled niches for the product or service. The designer’s expertise can come into play too, finding successes and pitfalls within visual marketing. Not only does this offer inspiration on how to beat out competitors, but it can also offer more information about the state of the industry. If a brand’s website looks dated, but its digital ads are strong, that can mean that the company has found more success in that medium, and the designer should make it more of a priority. Step 3: Learn from Client Wisdom Once the analysis of both audiences and competitors is complete, the designer should meet with the client to discuss. As an expert in their industry, the client will be able to elaborate on the designer’s discoveries, offering more and often deeper explanations for their findings. This open exchange of ideas also has the added benefit of setting a collaborative precedent, where both parties openly share their process. Especially for new clients, this can be a critical step in building trust. Step 4: Maintain Relevant Knowledge Even after the brand guide is finalized, a designer’s work is never done. Fads are consistently changing, and staying up to date on publications and educational resources can help ensure that each new design elevates the brand. Maintaining recognizable brand standards is the first priority, but there are always other small elements that can be tweaked to modernize the visual experience without compromising consistency. Publications within the client’s industry are equally important sources of information and design insight. Regularly reviewing them and their content helps ensure that the client’s brand is always on the cutting edge of their market.

Ashlyn Busse – Senior Graphic Designer   Marketing designs can contain any number of components, but two of the most consistent (and important) elements are color and font. The average viewer might not give a second thought to the colors and fonts in a design. However, the designer likely spent hours conceptualizing the perfect combinations of both for the initial branding guide and lots of trial and error to best use them in the resulting collateral. Making these decisions will look different for every project, but there are a few rules in both color and font selection that designers tend to abide by.   Color Choices Picking the right color isn’t just about making the design look nice; it also can have a psychological effect on the audience. Color theory explains the emotions and sensations associated with different colors, and it is a critical tool in developing branding. Red, for example, has been shown to induce hunger, which is why it is often used in logos for fast food chains. Blue, on the other hand, creates a sense of calm, making it a popular choice in the medical field. Many designers and clients will opt for variations of these colors to stand out, such as a lighter blue or even purple for medical companies, but straying too far into other colors can misalign the viewer’s emotional response. Complementary colors are also an important element to branding and design and need to be selected and used carefully. While some brands will simply stick within different shades of the same color (think Coca Cola’s red and white look), most will look across the color wheel to find secondary hues. When adopting this strategy, avoid colors that have the same value as each other. These pairs can be identified by a sort of visual vibration that strains the eyes when they are put together. Another common mistake to watch for is using colors that are already associated with other things. Red and green complement each other beautifully, but there’s a reason they are not commonly seen together in ads outside of the holiday season. Font Function Font style association with certain conceptions and emotions is less scientific, partially because there are so many options. Selecting the right font for a brand is generally more about trying possibilities until landing on one with the right feel. The font selected needs to fit the brand, but it also needs to be adaptable for multiple uses. Designers recommend that each piece contain a maximum of 2-3 font face styles to avoid a messy look. While bold and italics can offer a bit more variety, the base brand font style and 1-2 complementary styles will be doing a lot of leg work in a large variety of content. Legibility is another important consideration when selecting a brand font. Cursives may look nice, but will the audience be able to receive the message efficiently while struggling to make out the letters? Size in individual designs also contributes to legibility. For font in a print medium to be easily read, it should be at least 9-point. Disclaimers and other legal font need to be at least 6.5-point. Many designs, particularly in B2B, have a lot of text on them, and font can be an important tool to help the audience visually prioritize content. The most important rule for color, font and any other visual design components is consistency. The viewer’s attention span is limited, and for any impression made to be properly associated with the brand, there need to be identifiable elements. This is why designers spend so much time deliberating these two cornerstones of branding. Not only can they help communicate the message more effectively, but they also need to stand the test of time and become part of the brand’s identity.

John Konecny – Senior Art Director   Bringing an idea from concept to creative for the first time may seem a bit intimidating, and marketers may not know where to start. These tips can be a helpful guide to setting up efficient communication that translates your brand’s messaging into visual masterpieces. Don’t be shy . You’re bringing your products and services to the market because you believe they fulfill a need more than other options. Many marketers are hesitant to make bold claims of that nature or embrace a proud tone in their visual design, but those strategies are often the most effective. Your key differentiators should be the focal point of your visual storytelling. Tell your designer why you stand out in the industry, and allow them to communicate that message with impactful, unapologetic imagery whenever possible. Give us examples . Many people find articulating exactly what they’re looking for to be difficult, so examples can help. Whether you’re designing a logo or concepting an entire campaign, examples of designs that you like can be incredibly useful in identifying what will work and what won’t. These don’t even have to be from within your same industry. The elegance of a car ad or appealing shape of a drink logo can serve as inspiration and direction in any number of projects. These examples can help steer designers towards your vision. Remember your audience . The one downside of bringing in examples of what you like is that it can blur the line between the message sender and the message receiver. Personal taste from the brand’s marketing team is great for building aesthetically pleasing designs, but the audience must remain at the center of all messaging. Try to think of every campaign from the audience’s perspective and build it to create the ideal experience for them. Keep asset quality in mind . Movies can be misleading. In real life, there is no magical “enhance” button that makes a blurry photo sharper and clear. Designers can always reduce resolution if needed, but increasing resolution often results in pixelated and degraded images. Investing in quality photography is a great way to build a library of assets that are uniquely yours and open up more visual possibilities for your brand. Consolidate input and feedback . When working on a design project, every stakeholder’s opinion is valuable. However, gathering and incorporating all opinions in an inefficient manner is the most common culprit for design projects going over budget. Building processes to streamline input and feedback between your team and the designer ensures maximum efficiency while still including everyone’s insight. In a perfect world, implementing these guidelines would be easy, and everyone would have a perfectly efficient design process. However, we all know that is not always the case. Controlling what can be controlled and having the flexibility to work with what can’t is critical for both marketers and designers to establish positive working relationships and produce impactful creative work.

John Konecny – Senior Art Director   When putting together a design, zooming in can help the artist work out the finer details, while zooming out is the best way to see the piece in its full context. They serve different functions, but both are important for achieving the best results. The same is true when collecting input for a design concept. Audiences, like ogres and onions, have layers. A good designer understands that creating compelling visuals that influence behaviors requires appealing to its viewers on multiple levels, from zooming in on familiar brand elements to zooming out on the psychological traits that make up the human experience. Level 1: Consistency The most granular and most important element of a design concept is brand consistency. Change can be exciting, especially when a marketer comes up with an innovative new way to present the brand, but it also has to make sense. There are times when a new concept necessitates a rebrand, whether the company is moving into a new vertical, being acquired or simply repositioning to meet market needs. However, this is often done at the expense of the existing brand reputation. Branding powerhouses like Coca-Cola, Nike and Apple that serve as examples of effective campaigns all have one thing in common: consistency. Nike logos and advertising from 60 years ago are still identifiable as the brand we know today. There has been a gradual evolution of the logo and other elements to match the times and its changing product line, but Nike stays Nike. Brands looking to achieve similar success in their audiences should stick to this principle. Like Nike, the visuals should be distinguishable, engaging and modern while still maintaining a recognizable presence. This is especially challenging for brands with several products or companies under the same umbrella, but sticking to logos, fonts and other basic components still leaves a lot of room for individualized campaigns. Level 2: Community Developing the messaging for those individualized campaigns starts with a deep understanding of the audience. Who is the campaign for? This question should be answered in as much detail as possible, going beyond the high-level demographic information. Veterinary equipment, for example, is not marketed to pet owners, other equipment manufacturers or even most of the clinic staff. Clinic leadership makes purchasing decisions, and campaigns should be run in a way that is most appealing to them. Knowing the audience also includes knowing what they know. This is especially important in B2B, where designers are often creating concepts targeting an expert audience. Both the visuals and voice in the campaigns must be at or above their level; a generalized approach that appeals to a wide audience will likely not produce results. Level 3: Connection While the general populous may not understand the specifics of what a B2B ad is selling, there are universally appealing principles that can make it more enticing. When a designer zooms all the way out to see what speaks to the population, some visuals evoke the same reaction across the board. Think of all the best Super Bowl ads of the past decade. For most people, their favorite ads have nothing to do with the product being sold and everything to do with the emotions they felt. Campaigns that trigger emotional reactions, such as tears or laughter, are much more impactful. Though not true for every industry, moving people to tears with a B2B ad is generally not in line with its goals and objectives. However, humor is more adaptable. A well-executed visual gag or clever tagline that pairs well with the campaign’s key messaging is a surefire step towards a memorable ad. This connection to human psychology is also important when balancing written and visual content. People relied on vision to receive and process information long before written or spoken language was invented, and we are still much more reactive to optical stimuli. A picture of a snake with its fangs bared is going to evoke much more fear than the words “a snake with its fangs bared.” Once that impact has been made, the copy on the ad can help support with additional details that would be harder to convey through pictures, such as how to avoid being bitten by the snake, what to do if you are bitten, etc. If an ad is just consistent, audiences will find it forgettable. If it’s just memorable, audiences won’t connect it to a brand’s existing identity. Building the perfect concept means delivering on all three levels to create recognizable, audience-specific, impactful ads.

Ashlyn Busse – Senior Graphic Designer   A lot of people think branding is all about the content people see: the logos, slogans, brand colors, etc., but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. In reality, a company’s brand depends on the intangibles: vision, voice, values, strategy, message and personality. Unless the marketing team fully understands these elements and pulls from them in every project, the customer-facing components will be built like a house with no foundation. This is why the branding process is thorough, consisting of multiple steps and considerations. Know Thyself The good news is that the foundation is already built; it simply needs to be found. Marketers can work with the leadership team to identify the company’s background, history, projected future, product attributes and more. Not only does this help the agency hone in on the foundation of the brand, but it also helps the client get to know their own corporate identity even better. Tools like brand archetypes can be useful in this process, as they allow companies to narrow down the search within frameworks they can recognize. Is the brand a caregiver, preserving its consumers’ wellbeing? Or, is it a rebel, going against the grain to create new and exciting opportunities? Identifying which of the 12 archetypes a company is looking to represent, as well as which ones its customers perceive it to be, can help locate the foundation and inspire the path forward. Start with the Logo Once the foundation is firmly set, the next step in brand construction is the logo design. Logos are often the most recognizable elements of a brand, and they inform the color choices, font styles, imagery, tone and other important elements of future marketing pieces. Both these functions make logos a fundamental component of branding. The logo design process is deceptively complex, as many critical aspects of the brand need to be communicated in a single, simple image. Pulling inspiration from the client’s industry is a good place to start, as is following precedents set by other brands that fit into the same archetypes. Client taste also plays an important role, and designers should ask for examples of logos the client finds particularly compelling. All these inspirations are helpful, but the most important priority for logo design is to make it unique and identifiable. Designers will often create several options and work through multiple drafts before landing on the final product and solving the visual puzzle of what the brand identity looks like. Keep Customers in Mind While the company and marketers develop branding from the foundation up, the audience will experience the brand from the top down. Every marketing piece that they see needs to be both visually compelling and connected to the brand’s broader story. This creates an engaging and straight path for them to follow to understanding the deeper corporate identity.   The importance of understanding the brand and building off a logo can be summarized by two key guidelines: consistency and recognizability. These should be the goal of any brand-building campaign and the standard for every project going forward.

John Konecny – Senior Art Director As it turns out, size does matter. Shape matters too. And reference materials, resolution and visual hierarchy. In case the title didn’t give it away, I’m talking about design and how fundamental elements and procedures go a long way in maintaining the integrity of a campaign. To improve efficiency and brand consistency, most designs are going to serve multiple purposes. Following these steps can help creatives ensure that they can scale and rework existing files instead of literally going back to the drawing board. Go Big or Go Home Most people have probably seen in movies where the hero zooms in on grainy security footage, hits “enhance” and has a clear image of the suspect they’re trying to find. Unfortunately, that magical enhance button does not exist in real life. Images are composed of a series of square “dots,” and each dot is a single color. The more dots per inch (dpi) in an image, the higher the resolution. When images are expanded, the dots get bigger, but the number of dots stays the same. This can result in jagged, pixelated looks instead of clean, blended colors. When realizing an ad concept, starting with the biggest scalable size is critical. For most campaigns, this will be a full-page print ad. Two-page spreads are not as common and at a different height to width ratio. Point-of-sale designs, like signs at a trade show, are too big and unique for everyday use. The final product should be flexible to the point where it can be quickly and easily resized while maintaining the integrity of the initial image. Working down from the highest resolution is the only way achieve that goal. Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff Maintaining visual hierarchy across sizes and shapes is just as important as image quality. The most important elements should draw as much attention in a full-page print ad as they do in a digital banner, and some of the more supplemental components may get cut from certain layouts. Think of design like building an ice cream sundae. They come in different sizes and shapes, but the star is always the ice cream. A large sundae in a dish has plenty of room for hot fudge, whipped cream and other toppings to elevate the ice cream even further, but a smaller serving in a cone may only have space for a couple of sprinkles. Both options are delicious, and both fit better in certain situations depending on the consumer’s appetite. In design, key messages and branding elements are the ice cream. These are the critical components that communicate the fundamentals of the ad campaign. Supporting messages and imagery are the toppings. They’re nice to have, but too many in a small space can be messy and take away from the flavor of more important details. More is not always more. A well-made vanilla ice cream is always better than a coconut, gummy bear, hot fudge, pistachio, marshmallow, peanut butter, bubblegum cone with sprinkles. A simple, well-composed ad will always be more effective than a cluttered, busy one. Start out Strong The ice cream metaphor can also extend to compiling design components. Using real vanilla beans and fresh cream is going to produce a better final product than artificial flavoring and skim milk. In the same sense, quality photography is crucial for creating eye-catching imagery. Photography is an investment that almost always pays off. By capturing a variety of product stills, action shots, application examples and more, brands can create a library of images that are uniquely theirs and available to use in all advertising and marketing materials. Stock photos can be great, but in B2B, there may not be many options to capture the company’s niche needs. Everyone else in the industry has access to the same photos, and finding pictures that have been used across multiple brands is not uncommon. Capturing professional photography also helps with scalability. All the details from a panoramic shot are not going to fit into a portrait ad. Cropping can be used to capture some of them in each layout, but having a variety of angles in the first place ensures that the full visual impact is felt. Including some extra space around the edges of a photo can also help keep cropping from cutting out key details. Generative AI has been a useful tool in this area, as it can fill in some blanks between existing photo assets and what the design needs. It can expand the image or add background elements in a fraction of the time of doing it manually. However, the fine detail work is not nearly on par with what is captured in a photo. People can still recognize AI images versus real photography, and designers should avoid using them in focal points. The Cherry on Top Technically, all of these tips have workarounds. However, even the most talented designers would need hours of time to painstakingly recreate or manually adjust images, when having the right building blocks would enable them to do it in seconds. Offering quality input and following the proper steps for consistent, scalable imagery ensures designers can create the best outcomes and use their time to construct innovative visual strategies.

Karen Enriquez-Wagner – Account Supervisor Achieving a cohesive and compelling brand presence at industry trade shows is no easy feat. Often, efforts need to start months in advance to adequately prepare for the event. However, trade shows represent a unique opportunity in B2B marketing, offering valuable facetime with important industry contacts. When done effectively, trade show preparation is worth every minute. As with all marketing campaigns, success at industry events boils down to strategic planning. While each show will be unique depending on size, industry and other factors, these general tips of the trade show can help brands put their best foot forward. Set up Homebase The trade show booth itself represents the bulk of the impact a brand will have on the event and its attendees. Strategic design and detail-oriented execution are critical in ensuring positive impressions. Visual elements should be impactful and inviting, encouraging viewers to take time out of their busy show schedules to stop in. However, consistency with the brand’s product or service is equally as important. Visitors may remember the interesting design, but if they can’t associate it with the exhibitor and what they do, the experience will most likely not generate leads. Utility is also an important consideration when designing a booth. There are several practical elements to consider, such as attendee traffic, places to house literature, how the products will be showcased and more. What kind of experience should visitors have at the booth? Is it open for large groups of people or set up to encourage 1-on-1 interaction with sales staff and prospective customers? By considering all stakeholders and their behaviors within the space, marketers can ensure the booth is equipped to optimize efficiency and present a polished look. Because of the scale of trade show booths and the limited setup time before shows, many brands don’t see the finished product until it’s too late to change anything. Finding a booth vendor partner that allows walkthroughs, either virtual or preferably in-person, before the final product is shipped to the show allows time for tweaking small details and prevents surprises. With this extra step, any potential issues that did not come to light in the planning stages can be accommodated and the design can be perfected. Supplement Strategically Though the booth is the primary facet of trade show branding, it is not the only opportunity to make an impression. Pre-show marketing efforts can have a significant impact on awareness for giveaways, new product offerings and other incentives to drive traffic to the booth. These can include social media posts, eblasts, direct mail and more. Often, marketing teams can even work with the show’s host to obtain a contact list of attendees for effective audience targeting. Public relations can also factor into trade show preparation, as editors and other media contacts are usually in attendance. Reaching out to those contacts before the show and setting up booth visits is a great way to boost media relations and potentially earn editorial placements. During the show, marketers can take advantage of the large event space with onsite advertising. Organizers will have no shortage of options for additional visibility, with banner ads, spots in newsletters, event sponsorships and more. The best spots tend to fill up quickly, so including mid-show awareness efforts early in trade show planning is the best way to ensure results. Even after the show, marketers still have opportunities to capitalize on the brand’s presence during the event. Following up with additional emails and social media posts holds the attention of attendees and offers them another opportunity to convert into leads. Public relations follow ups are equally important to show appreciation for any editors who met with the brand representatives at the show and can increase the likelihood of positive press. All of this work for an event that only lasts a couple of days may seem like overkill, but anyone who has attended a major industry expo knows that their value cannot be overstated. In this digital age, any opportunity for in-person communication is priceless in building genuine connections and long-lasting professional relationships. With effective, strategic preparation and thorough execution, trade shows can provide some of the best return on investment of any marketing effort.

Taylor Brazell – Account Executive A common frustration we see with social media marketing is that brands are consistently posting, but their engagement rates or follower counts are not where they want them to be. In these situations, many are quick to assume they should be posting more, but that is not necessarily the best strategy. Quality is much more important than quantity in marketing, and social media is no exception. An important aspect of driving engagement is understanding the unique needs of the medium. Marketers would never try to include several pages of text into a single page ad, nor would they submit a single paragraph as an article. Social media has its own rules and best practices as well and understanding them can help craft strategy that drives engagement and leads. Purposeful Posting Driving up meaningful behaviors starts with effective post construction. As the name would imply, social media is all about personal connections and sharing stories directly with the people we care about most. Posts about people, including success stories, testimonials and staff images, tend to do better than stagnant product shots or stock images. The audience on social media wants to access who a brand is, and giving them what they want is key to growing the page. Fitting content to the individual platform is important as well. LinkedIn posts are generally more professional in tone with emphasis on thought leadership and business developments, while Facebook and Instagram are more people-oriented and ideal for feel-good content. Posting just to create content without any strategic direction rarely, if ever, produces the same results as tailoring to the platform. The Best Action Is Interaction Another key component of optimizing social media engagement is by directly encouraging it. Tagging individuals and other companies when relevant is a great way to drive them to interact with posts and even encourage them to like or share to their own network of followers. Brands can also provoke these behaviors from their own followers by encouraging them to “comment below” to share experiences and participate in conversations. In addition, brands should be participating in the exact behaviors they are looking to grow. Social media is a two-way street, and when a brand is liking, commenting on and sharing posts from others, they are likely to see the same activity reciprocated. Brands should also interact with comments and shares on their own posts with likes, replies and other acknowledgements. This shows appreciation for the audience participation and a willingness to join in on conversations to help viewers better understand the brand. Support for social media can also be built into other tactics, such as email blasts, tradeshow collateral and more. By directing new leads and prospects to social channels as a source of information, brands can continue to organically build on their numbers and drive positive results. No Shame in Snooping Social media provides direct contact with brands and their content in a way no medium ever has before. Customers, both current and prospective, are usually the primary beneficiaries of this access, but companies can take advantage of it too. Competitive research on social media is a great way to gain insight into how a brand can be driving up engagement, especially if a rival is performing better in certain metrics. Everything they post is fair game for marketers to learn from, use to adapt their own posts and exceed with their own KPIs. Beyond Behaviors Driving up likes, comments, shares and followers on social media is not just about individual metrics. Algorithms see these numbers as an indication of viewer demand. The more interactions a page has, the more the algorithm will serve it in front of similar audiences, which creates a positive cycle of growth begetting more growth. Just like any other marketing effort, social media is ultimately a step towards growing qualified leads. Enhancing social strategy doesn’t just boost impressions and behaviors; it can have a direct impact on increasing revenue.

Karen Enriquez-Wagner – Account Supervisor Email marketing platforms provide a lot of data. Information such as open rates, call-to-action (CTA) clicks and bounce rates is useful in measuring the success of individual campaigns. However, these insights can go even further to helping marketers understand consumer behaviors with a little experimentation. A/B testing is a common strategy in email marketing that randomly splits the list of recipients into two or more groups that each receive a slightly different email. While the core messaging remains the same, small details are tweaked, and analyzing how the data differs in each of the groups can help improve results in future campaigns. A ll About Variables Just like a science experiment, A/B testing in marketing relies on testing hypotheses and measuring outcomes. The independent variables will depend on the client, audience and campaign, but common testable factors include: Subject line CTAs Time of day and week when the email is sent Imagery General content Small tweaks are recommended for any independent variables rather than drastic changes, as marketers want to avoid comparing apples to oranges. B est Practices Timing is a key component that separates A/B testing from other kinds of research. While experiments to test fundamental differences in the messaging and presentation should be completed before the launch of a campaign, A/B testing is done throughout its duration. Initial testing will also use different methods, such as focus groups and surveys, and answer bigger questions about the overall strategy. A/B testing will fill in tactical details for successful execution. With this purpose in mind, marketers are encouraged to continuously utilize A/B testing. Even if they have been working with the same audience for years, new data could still show up and surprise them. How the data is collected is just as important as when. As in science experiments, reliable output from A/B testing relies on changing one variable at a time. If a subject line and call to action are both changed between group A and group B, marketers will not know for sure which caused one send to outperform the other. Random split is also critical here to avoid introducing any new variables. Dividing the groups by location, gender, age or other demographics may cause the differences from group to group to impact the data rather than what the marketer is trying to test. Many email platforms allow marketers to split the list by every other person alphabetically or other more randomized options. Cultivating Conversions A/B testing, like any research in marketing, is done with the goal of optimizing each effort to increase conversions. Sending an email at 2 p.m. on a Monday versus 2 p.m. on a Tuesday may not seem like a drastic change, but small details make a big difference. Part of the appeal of email marketing is the wide reach it has, directly contacting hundreds of target audience members at once. Even a 1 percent increase in link clicks means dozens more people are interacting with the brand in a more meaningful way and one step closer to converting into sales.  With the right approach, variables and technique, A/B testing is an invaluable tool to help marketers gain deeper understanding of audience preferences. Implementing it in email marketing allows for continuous refinement of strategy to maximize effectiveness and drive tangible results.

Katie Robertson – Public Relations Account Executive Whoever said “no news is good news” clearly did not work in public relations. While making headlines for a scandal or crisis is not recommended for obvious reasons, avoiding the spotlight altogether is not an effective strategy either. Many brands operate under the assumption that PR is reserved for big moments and content normally found in the headlines is the only content worth reporting. However, most media outlets cover more than a front page amount of news at a time, giving brands numerous opportunities to publish content and garner positive attention. Mentionable Moments The story of a brand goes deeper than its loudest moments, and customers should have the chance to experience that through well-rounded PR content. There are plenty of topics and events worthy of press attention, and most brands have more than they think. Some examples include… New hires and promotions Significant sales Awards Individual employee accomplishments Trade show attendance Partnership with industry organizations and non-profits And more Not only can these events lead to press releases or media advisories to generate attention, but they can also inspire editorials. Maybe a new hire has a particular area of expertise that could be written into an article, or receiving an award gives the company a new level of authority on a topic. No matter what is happening within a brand, chances are it can be leveraged for PR coverage in multiple ways. Broadcast Benefits Sharing good news about a company comes with a number of benefits. The first and most important is the additional exposure customers have to the brand. Familiarity with a brand is a major factor that contributes to purchasing decisions. Every time the brand can get in front of its customers’ eyes, the likelihood of a purchase increases. The quality of those impressions is equally important in informing purchasing decisions. While the media outlet publishing the content ultimately has the final say, most will only make small tweaks to the provided copy to make it fit their publication’s standards. This allows the company to almost entirely control the narrative and present the facts in the best way. As the coverage from earned media is free, blatantly promotional copy, like the wording used in advertising, will generally not get printed. However, the right PR professional can still create a positive message without the sales pitch to influence perspective and behavior. In addition to building positive impressions with the brand’s customer base, persistent, reliable PR content can help boost media relations. Many publications, especially in B2B, are short-staffed and rely on PR professionals from the industry to fill each issue. Sharing news and industry insights gives them more options with little to no effort needed on their part. Editors remember brands that help them and will often come back to them with additional PR and advertising opportunities. Supporting the earned media efforts with paid content goes even further, as budgets are generally tight in trade publications, and every dollar in ad spend is deeply appreciated.   Send It to Print When employees are immersed in their day-to-day business, they tend to have a hard time seeing how many stories could be relevant and exciting to a target audience. However, that does not mean they are not worth sharing. Untapped PR potential is one of the quickest ways companies can boost their marketing efforts. Consistently finding the content hidden in plain sight and leveraging stories in multiple ways is cost-efficient, quick to turn around and an impactful way to generate quality leads.

Ashlyn Busse – Senior Graphic Designer A lot of people think branding is all about the content people see: the logos, slogans, brand colors, etc., but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. In reality, a company’s brand depends on the intangibles: vision, voice, values, strategy, message and personality. Unless the marketing team fully understands these elements and pulls from them in every project, the customer-facing components will be built like a house with no foundation. This is why the branding process is thorough, consisting of multiple steps and considerations. Know Thyself The good news is that the foundation is already built; it simply needs to be found. Marketers can work with the leadership team to identify the company’s background, history, projected future, product attributes and more. Not only does this help the agency hone in on the foundation of the brand, but it also helps the client get to know their own corporate identity even better. Tools like brand archetypes can be useful in this process, as they allow companies to narrow down the search within frameworks they can recognize. Is the brand a caregiver, preserving its consumers’ wellbeing? Or, is it a rebel, going against the grain to create new and exciting opportunities? Identifying which of the 12 archetypes a company is looking to represent, as well as which ones its customers perceive it to be, can help locate the foundation and inspire the path forward. Start with the Logo Once the foundation is firmly set, the next step in brand construction is the logo design. Logos are often the most recognizable elements of a brand, and they inform the color choices, font styles, imagery, tone and other important elements of future marketing pieces. Both these functions make logos a fundamental component of branding. The logo design process is deceptively complex, as many critical aspects of the brand need to be communicated in a single, simple image. Pulling inspiration from the client’s industry is a good place to start, as is following precedents set by other brands that fit into the same archetypes. Client taste also plays an important role, and designers should ask for examples of logos the client finds particularly compelling. All these inspirations are helpful, but the most important priority for logo design is to make it unique and identifiable. Designers will often create several options and work through multiple drafts before landing on the final product and solving the visual puzzle of what the brand identity looks like. Keep Customers in Mind While the company and marketers develop branding from the foundation up, the audience will experience the brand from the top down. Every marketing piece that they see needs to be both visually compelling and connected to the brand’s broader story. This creates an engaging and straight path for them to follow to understanding the deeper corporate identity.   The importance of understanding the brand and building off a logo can be summarized by two key guidelines: consistency and recognizability. These should be the goal of any brand-building campaign and the standard for every project going forward.