branding

Mission Control Episode 2: Helping Women Period

In this second episode of Mission Control, we talk with Lysne Tait, Executive Director of Helping Women Period. She talks about how the organization started as a grassroots venture trying to feed a need. In the second part, we talk with Rose Tantrapohl of Moonsail North. They were the design firm that helped in the brand refresh for Helping Women Period.

GUEST POST: 7 Instagram Video Content Ideas To Build Your Brand (For Next Generation)

Instagram is one of the best social media platforms to increase your brand presence and reach new audiences. More than one billion active users are involved on Instagram monthly and upload over 100 million posts daily. Among them, two million advertisers use Instagram to grow their business.

Posting high-quality content increases brand engagement among your followers. The content can be in the form of images or videos. Video content performs well compared to image content because your followers will spend more time on your video content, increasing your brand awareness.

Here are some of the best video content ideas on Instagram that engage your followers with your brand and grow your business to a higher level.

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GUEST POST: The Importance of Creating a Multichannel Marketing Strategy

marketing strategy | mConnexions Marketing Agency

When it comes to marketing your business, are you putting all of your eggs into just one basket?

If the chaos of 2020 has proven one thing, it’s that the marketplace can change quickly and without warning. With this, we’ve seen the immense risk that some organizations take when they put all of their marketing efforts into one channel. It’s evident that many companies continue to face challenges in adapting to the drastic changes of this year, and even organizations that have been in existence for almost 200 years have folded (we’ll miss you, Lord and Taylor!). (more…)

Guest Post: How to Design a Thoroughly Enjoyable Digital Storefront

Launching a successful eCommerce store requires more than the ability to offer high-quality products and services to an audience in need. In order to stand out amongst today’s competition, developing a thoroughly enjoyable digital storefront is a must. Knowing how to design your eCommerce storefront to deliver a positive experience to your visitors is a great way to gain trust and loyalty among your customers.

Define Your Brand and Aesthetic

Define your brand and the aesthetic you are going for before choosing a layout and design that is optimal for your storefront. If you want your visitors to view your storefront and brand as chic and modern, using outdated, grainy, blurry, or discolored graphics and imagery should be avoided. Align the design and imagery of your website with the brand you are trying to establish with your digital storefront.

three students pointing to a laptop screenCreate a Site Map

Implement a site map into your website after you create a customer success journey map. A customer success journey map can be useful to determine how you intend to entice customers, gain their trust, and help them navigate throughout your digital storefront. Using a journey map is also a great way to develop your site map to help users better navigate your website when they are searching for items, looking to create an account, or want to check out.

Implement Easily Accessible Navigation

Easily accessible navigation is a key element involved in building any successful website, including eCommerce storefronts. Ensure that your digital storefront has a navigation bar or system in place that can be accessed via a desktop browser, a mobile browser, or even with the use of a tablet device.

Use a Mobile-Friendly and Responsive eCommerce Layout

When you are choosing or creating a design for your digital storefront, it is important to ensure that the layout you choose is responsive and mobile-friendly. As more individuals turn to use their mobile phones and tablets to browse the web, having a website layout that is responsive and mobile-friendly is essential. If a user visits your digital storefront and is unable to easily access your inventory, promotions, blogs, or navigation, they are much more likely to seek out an alternative online source.

Knowing how to design a thoroughly enjoyable digital storefront is a way to stand out with your eCommerce store in any market or industry. With the right design, maximize your eCommerce storefront’s online reach and your ability to generate sales.

 

Lizzie Weakley is a freelance writer from Columbus, Ohio. She went to college at The Ohio State University, where she studied communications. In her free time, she enjoys the outdoors and long walks in the park with her three-year-old husky, Snowball.

#BetterCallPaul – Authenticity Webinar with 2nd Brain Collective

Stock images. Photoshop. Influencer advertising.
Everybody’s doing it, but does that make it right?

MConnexions Principal Strategist, Julie Holton sits down with her 2nd Brain Collective colleagues, Paul J Schmidt of UnoDeuce Multimedia, and Adam Suiter of 360 Photo & Design.

Guest Post: Nonprofit Communications: A Few Basic Tips

Organized communications with streamlined and consistent messages are essential for every organization and business in today’s climate. The need to explain to people what you’re doing and why it matters can help you reach those you are seeking to serve, connect with funders and raise awareness to the general public and politicians about the issues. In many cases, nonprofit organizations have additional challenges around capacity and general expertise on the subject. Unfortunately, this usually means that organizations don’t prioritize this task and it isn’t done as well as it could be. In this post, I will outline a few primary priorities that will really help steer your communications in a better direction as you evaluate and develop a strategy for the future.


Getting Started

Chances are, you are already performing this function to some extent within your organization. When you aren’t starting from square one, you have the opportunity to evaluate your current situation and make it better, which can be considerably easier. Start by making a list of all of the different tools that your organization has and uses, along with any existing scheduling, resources and staff accountability associated with it. This includes everything from a logo and tagline, to structured emails that go out to a list, press releases, social media accounts, business cards, marketing materials and more. Once you have this list, look at them and evaluate whether or not they are consistent, represents the values of your organization and follows basic general rules for brand recognition. Again, it’s much easier to discard materials that are obsolete or ineffective and update those that are. It’s also a much better use of your resources, which everybody can appreciate. Further, it is essential that you evaluate your all of your communications and work on an ongoing basis so that you can prove that your efforts are worth it. Using email, website and social media analytics, surveys, and attendance numbers are just a few easy ways to check in on your work. Don’t feel bad if you have to revamp things – learning more about our clients helps us to serve them better.

Brand Recognitionphoto2-branding-image
People often misunderstand brands and think they only apply to businesses and cor
porations, but people and organizations have them too, whether they realize it or not. A brand is the articulation of a set of values, goals and p
romises a group represents and hopes to portray to the rest of the world. More than a logo, the consistency of your messages, styles and practices packaged together make a brand that b
ecomes recognizable over time. Moreover, the professionalism in which you exhibit throughout this process, from how you answer the phone to how you describe what your organization does should complement all of the other printed and digital materials. The more you put out with your brand elements on it, the more people will begin to recognize your organization and make associations based on their experiences with you. Consider this when you are going through your materials in your original audit and make sure that they are consistent and representative of your brand.

photo3-audienceSpeak to Your Audience
Are you putting out communications that your audience is receiving? Are they in the correct format and pushed out on communication channels where they visit? It is most important not to spread yourself too thin and try to be everywhere all the time, especially if these different tactics are beyond the personnel skillset. When you are making your list of all of the different assets that you currently have (logo, marketing materials, etc.) make a note about where you distribute and publish these items. Then think about the different opportunities for distribution and make sure that is in alignment with where your audience is located.
For example, if you are hosting an event that would appeal to a young professional demographic, you might not be as lucky by posting flyers at the senior center. Think critically about how you might find your audience and utilize your resources to have a presence there. Moreover, using graphics and messaging that resonates with your intended audience is more likely to increase their interest.

Defining a Strategy
Planning your communications and your overall strategy has a lot of moving parts, and involves a variety of skills, resources and buy-in for it to be effective. If you have a full campaign ready to launch but you can’t get the rest of the organization to use it, then it has a higher likelihood of falling flat. The tips described above are really just a start and a way to tighten up what you already have, and I do highly recommend working collaboratively as a team and with a professional to develop a strategy that everybody is proud of and can use to hit the ground running. CEDAM hosted a recent webinar for members and Main Street communities in August that outlines the process of getting started more thoroughly. Listen to the recorded webinar here for more tools to create a better and appropriate strategy for your organization.

 

Lisa lisabenckAssenmacher is the Communications & Training Specialist with the Community Economic Development Association of Michigan (CEDAM) in Lansing. CEDAM is a nonprofit membership organization supporting community-based economic development in Michigan. At CEDAM, Lisa supports both the organization and members through marketing, graphic design, communications and educational resource development. She possesses a Bachelor of Science in Urban & Regional Planning, an Associates in Applied Arts in Graphic Design and an Masters in Business Administration. Learn more about CEDAM and a CEDAM members at cedam.info.