How to Get the Best Work from Your Agency

When we receive kudos for a successful project, it’s always a reflection on the client—as well as on our own firm. We’ve been fortunate to work for clients who know how to inspire the very best work in their creative team.

Here’s what an ANA and AAAA survey found that agencies said helped them to produce top quality work: 

1. Giving the agency the necessary time and resources to do its best work
2. Working with the agency in a collaborative manner that puts a premium on mutual respect
3. Identifying and articulating the outcomes the agency’s work is expected to produce
4. Providing clear and complete direction
5. Providing constructive, timely feedback
6. Understanding the problems and opportunities facing the brand and identifying key success drivers
7. Ensuring that all relevant information and necessary personnel are made available to the agency

Agencies and businesses are partners working together to achieve your business goals. On the flip side, we’re always interested in hearing what agencies can do to ensure that you receive the best creative solutions for your business challenges.

What are your biggest frustrations when working with an agency?

15 Year Anniversary: New Ways of Helping You Succeed

In response to this changing landscape, we’ve been thinking about what will make you more successful. Out of this has grown the addition of several new services—and enhancements of existing services.

Video

We now have regional videographers in several major markets where we conduct a lot of work, so are able to compete even more competitively on the price of developing video productions. Consider us if you need:

• Simple, affordable mini-documentaries that feature high quality interviews and b-roll. Video is now a medium of choice if you ask many consumers how they want information, and a must have for any progressive organization’s Web site. See examples. 
• Creative, emotive pieces that reinforce messages, mission and culture or inspire people to buy, give, support, join or advocate for your product or service. See examples. 
• Fun, entertaining, or reality-type videos that convey a message in unconventional ways. Remember that consumers are now looking for entertainment in advertising messages.  

Motion Graphics

These are perfect for stimulating Web traffic and delivering a message with words, photos, music and animation—without the cost of video footage. They can be produced quickly and affordably, and amp up the effectiveness of your message—making it more likely to be shared via social media. See examples.

Web Messaging

With Web moving to the center of all of our lives as a primary repository of communication, we can bring together all the tools needed to create a powerful presence for you—either by creating your Web site or by providing messaging and images for a particular product or service on your existing site. We can help you determine what your site should say—as well as do the writing, design and development. See examples.

Proprietary Marketing for Physician Practices

With decades of combined experience helping hospitals and patients launch new services and practices, our proprietary marketing for physicians can jump start your physician practice. If you’re paying a physician’s salary and he or she isn’t seeing many patients, this becomes a very smart business move that should easily justify its costs.

We continue to offer the services we have in the past—but with these new and enhanced services, we now offer more ways to help you tell your story, drive business, and drive revenues to your bottom line.

The Overlooked Sign: Increase Your Business With Better Signage

We designed a window graphic for this medical group in Colorado in an effort help differentiate it from its retail neighbors—and promote the clinic. Walk-in business increased by 333% the first two months, and those who set up appointments because they saw the sign while driving by went up by 380%.

If you’re spending money on media buys but not looking at how well your own signage is working, maybe it’s time to take a second look. It could be your most effective—and least expensive—ad ever.

2011 Web Trends: Part 2

Our last post highlighted some trends in Web design for 2011. We continue that here.

Adventurous Domain Names—The common .com is going out of style. Look for more creative addresses like .me or which is becoming more common for blogs or portfolios or .us for business pages.

Quick Response Codes—You may have noticed these appearing on business cards, ads, billboards, etc. This is one trend that has a multitude of uses and doesn't seem to be going away anytime soon. Here are some cool uses for a QR code: 

1. Put a QR code on the back of your business card so people can easily visit your Web site.
2. Place a QR code on ads or store fronts so that smartphone users can access special offers, coupons or giveaways.
3. Use QR codes on T-shirts so you can be a walking promotion for whatever it is you are wanting to promote.
4. QR codes can also be used to make phone calls or send texts when scanned. Think of all the possibilities with this one!

Thumbnail Design—Thanks to Google's new thumbnail browsing you no longer have to click through to see the contents of a Web site, so expect your site to be judged based on a thumbnail as users become more acquainted with this new way of browsing. This poses a problem for Flash sites because that part of your design will not display in the preview.

Constant Connection / Life Stream—In our quest to make the internet more personable, we have taken to sharing all aspects of our lives online. Expect to see more integrated live feeds on Web sites such as the site below.

Article Source

What's the Deal with Google+ ?

You've probably been hearing about the new Google+, so for those of you still scratching your heads, this video provides a quick summary of what Google+ is about. 

Seven Things to Do Now to Increase the Effectiveness of Your Facebook Page

1. Publish status updates or major stories in the morning. If you publish between 11 am and 4 pm your content may go unnoticed due to the heavy traffic by other users.
2. Tag your friends when you post a note, so they see a message on their wall and are more likely to read it. Unfortunately you can only tag 30 people at a time. If you post multiple notes in order to tag more than 30 people, make sure to delete the duplicated posts in your news feed so you don't look like a spammer.
3. Encourage interaction from your fans. Invite conversation, create contests, post interesting status updates and encourage check-ins.
4. Share interesting links and encourage people to comment, but be sure to post the whole link instead of a short link because it's 300 percent more likely to get clicked on.
5. Thursday is the best day of the week to get the most visibility for a Facebook post.
6. Facebook may be the best platform for making a video go viral due to its ease of embedding media.
7. Remember AIDA—Attention, Interest, Desire, Action.

Visit Ragan.com for more social media tips.

How to Stretch Your Photo Budget

We'll give this a C grade. Lots of busy details detract from its message.

We'll give this an A. Strong focal point, good composition, professional.

Think you can’t afford professional photography? Here are some ways to stretch your budget:

1. Consider hiring a photographer with a journalistic background who can shoot candids that are compelling. These require less set-up, thereby reducing cost, and add an air of authenticity to your images.
2. Set up a one- or two-day shoot that attempts to capture a variety of images that can be used in a many ways. These digital assets can be cropped differently, treated differently, and used in different applications—while still giving your organization a professional image.
3. Mix stock images with custom images to create a high quality piece. If you select images with similar characteristics and lighting, you can give the illusion of using all-custom images.
4. Negotiate a price that includes full use rights when you do hire a professional photographer. This will ensure that you can use them in various applications.
5. Plan to update your library every two years to ensure that you have fresh, high quality images with which to work.

Photos create a far more powerful first impression than words. Remember that although you can’t quantify it, there’s a cost to your organization when it appears unprofessional, careless, second rate or outdated because of poor images.

Image 1 source, Image 2 source

Is E-mail Dead?

 

Is email dead? Some say absolutely, while others say not at all.

 

In his Constant Contact blog, Martin Lieberman reports on Media Post’s 2011 E-mail Insider Summit and asserts that it isn’t.

 

The role of e-mail has changed, he says, and now requires that you include strong calls to action in your email that pull your reader to other channels like social media, where you can continue the conversation. E-mail is forging stronger bonds with social media—with both working together to deliver content. 

How are you using e-mail and social media as companion channels? Do you think e-mail is dead?

View the full report here. 

Corporate Image Must Reflect Reality

 

It's our business to help other businesses with their corporate image. But our work only builds upon what the company already is. In some cases, a company has more to offer than its customers recognize—and that's when a strategically developed communication plan can really help grow the business. Upon occasion, a company wishes to position itself as something more than it is.

 

While communication can drive corporate culture, there must be parity between what a company wishes to convey—and what they really are. Successful companies know that they must put sustained effort into both to retain the trust of their clients and sustain a thriving business.

Have you heard about Facebook's EdgeRank?

Have you noticed how only certain people's posts show up in your news feed? This is because Facebook uses something called EdgeRank to determine which status updates you will see in your top news feed. In order to do this, Facebook has developed an algorithm which takes into account affinity, weight and time decay.

• Affinity is determined by your interaction with another user or page. The more you view their page or content, the higher your affinity score will be for them.
• Weight is calculated by the ways you interact with other pages or users. For example, commenting on a picture will have a higher weight than simply liking it.
• Time is probably the easiest to understand, and simply means that the older a post, the lower a score it will have.

If you want to test your EdgeRank score, EdgeRankChecker.com  has developed an algorithm which allows you to do so. This score is closely related to how visible your status updates are on your fans' pages.

If you get a poor score, here are  some ways to improve it.

• Try to focus on posting content that encourages interaction such as photos, videos,  links or questions.  
• Ask for feedback from users. Encourage people to comment and to like your entries.
• Pose questions to your readers.
• Be a frequent user. The more you share, the higher your chance of interaction will be.

Image source