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Create a Media Library For Successful Marketing

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Being the visual creatures we are, photography is one of the most attention-getting and storytelling means of marketing your small business. This is true whether you’re posting on Facebook or printing a hardcopy brochure (still very effective, by the way). 

Fortunately for us, smart phones make it easy to put together a media library filled with quality photos. The tricky part is ensuring that “perfect shot” is usable and, haha, findable when you need it.

In this post I’m covering usability. Stay tuned for my next post on findability. 

Photography Determines Project Success

From my experience as a graphic and web designer, here are three tips for success in your marketing project. They will also save you time and money.

Your photos should:

  1. Be Consistent With Your Brand
    Your photography should always match your business values. It should resonate with your target market. Earlier this year I updated a website for The Real Estate Duo. Check out the photo they gave me to use on their Meet the Duo page. It shows perfectly the fun, sassy, and totally capable Realtors that they are. 
     
  2. Elevate Your Narrative
    Storytelling and marketing go hand-in-hand. What stories do your photos tell? When Wisconsin’s Soil Sisters were featured in Modern Farmer Magazine, the photography conveyed the unique relationship these women have with one another. It also enabled readers to feel part of their farms and family. Do you have storytelling photos ready when it’s your turn to shine?
     
  3. Be High-Res
    When it comes to saving you time and money, I can’t stress enough the importance of high-resolution photography. This is especially true when it comes to hardcopy promotional pieces, where professional printing requires 300 dpi or higher (note: photos copied from the internet will notwork). Remember, you can always downsize the dimensions or resolution of an image after it’s taken, but you can never increase it. Shoot your photos in the highest resolution available—in fact, change your camera settings right now! Also, be sure to email photos to your designer in their fullest size. Do not diminish the file for the sake of easier emailing. 

Stay tuned next month for helpful tips in organizing those photos!

What I’m Working On This Month

August is Fermentation Fest month—for the guide, that is. The Fermentation Fest team and I have been researching, gathering, laying out, rearranging, editing, rearranging, adding, and rearranging again. All this behind-the-scenes is culminating an extraordinary gem; a literary/art zine, both beautiful and intelligent. Watch for it in mid-August throughout Wisconsin, Chicago, and the Twin Cities.

What I’m Tuned Into This Month

  1. Turning Personal Pain into Power, Regina Brett interviews Mary Watson on resilience. Good choices determine our life.
  2. The Corner Table, Forage for Your Supper, Wow, talk about creative entrepreneuring! Fermented hot sauce, wild food walks, wild food dinners, and CSA wild greens. 
  3. Bruschetta with Pesto: Fresh tomatoes and basil, hmmmm. My favorite of the gardening season. 
  4. This is Your Brain on Nature: Even more relevant during this summer of Covid.

Is Your Website Serving Your Customers During Covid-19?

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It’s no secret our screen time has skyrocketed. Whether it’s socializing, shopping or Zooming, the internet sure has been our lifeline these past three months, hasn’t it? That’s why now, more than ever, it’s a dire necessity that your business has a strong online presence.

The Big 3 for Your Website

  • Your Website Should be Easy for Viewers
    People have a lot complicated things going on right now. Navigating a website shouldn’t be one of them. Keep yours simple, enjoyable to view, and easy to use. Above all, keep your necessary information right up front—whether or not you’re open, your hours, contact info, whatever your customers need to be your customer. 
  • Your Website Should Solve a Problem
    Right now a major issue for Americans is shopping. I’m hugely impressed with businesses that quickly jumped in with shopping carts to their sites. CSA farms are making it easier for subscribers to order in advance. Restaurants are making curbside pickups quicker with online ordering. WooCommerce, ChowNow, Barn2Door are just a few of the many eCommerce companies that enable small businesses to direct sell their product online. Search “eCommerce” for one in your industry.
  • Your Website Should be Easy for YOU
    You can’t dedicate yourself to your customers if you’re stressing over your website. Make sure yours is easy to maintain. While it’s convenient to have the same company build your website and set up eCommerce, some small business owners want extra one-on-one. That’s where I come in. If you need help, give me a call/text at 920-261-5519. I’m happy to set you up with a customized, user-friendly WordPress site where, together, we can simply plunk in eCommerce code from your favorite company. Best of all, I can teach you how to manage it!

What I’m Working On This Month

Another website! A perfect project for Memorial Day—The Union Cemetery of Watertown Township. Our goal is to bring awareness and appreciation to this historic, rural cemetery just up the road. 

What I’m Tuned In To This Month

  • Ferment, by Holly Davis. Full of information and recipes, it’s a feast for the eyes as well as the palate.
  • The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, by Kim Michele Richardson. A touching story of 1930s Appalachia and the Pack Horse Librarians. It motivates good discussion with my online book club.
  • Midwest Organic & Sustainable Education Service (MOSES) recently began podcasting. From rebuilding a just food system to social media for your business, they’re covering a full range of topics.
  • Jenna Kutcher, Marketing Entrepreneur. Throughout my 15 years of business I’ve followed a diverse group of marketing gurus. Often they’re millennials (they keep me on my toes) or their market is far different than my own. But inevitably I learn something I can apply to my business. 

Thoughtful Marketing During Coronavirus Times

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Wisconsin, like most states, is struggling over the extension of its stay-at-home order. While we each have our own narrative on such news, for the sake of “we’re all in this together,” let’s agree this nasty little virus has everyone needing an extra big hug.

This, my dears, is where small business owners can make a difference. How we care for our customers could very well be the make or break of their day. It could be what they remember most about us long after this crisis is over.

Reassure Them

Make sure your customers know you’re still there for them. How are you responding to this crisis? If you had to change the way you run your business, explain the changes you’ve made and how they will help the customer. Communicate this in detail; over and over, if needed.

Be Available Online

Everyone is home right now and working from their computer. Now is the time to make your online presence its best. On top of that, everyone is feeling isolated. Take extra time to communicate personally, whether by email, text or a good, old-fashioned telephone call. 

Be Empathic in Your Advertising and Social Media

These are sensitive times. Some have lost love ones. Others are struggling financially. Our levels of tolerance are at much lower limits. Now is not the time to argue politics. Instead show love, care and concern. 

Help Your Customers BE Your Customers

How can your customers more easily acquire your product? Can they order online? Can they pay by credit card? Can you deliver to their door?

What I’m Working on This Month

So many events have been cancelled. But I’m super excited to share that Fermentation Fest is still on for this fall. Not only that, it’s the Farm/Art DTour year, with an all-new 50-mile route through beautiful Sauk County countryside. Mark your calendar for this great event!

What I’m Tuned In To This Month

  1. Herbal Academy Introductory Herbal Course. Furthering my fascination with herbs, both culinary and medicinal.
  2. In Her Boots podcast with Inga Witcher, of Around the Farm Table. A great episode on cultivating resilience.
  3. A longtime follower of Smitten Kitchen, I was awed by How I Stock My Kitchen. Life in New York is so different than the Midwest. My heart goes to all New Yorkers right now. 
  4. The Great Family Feast Cook-Off is May 1. If we can’t cook in person, we can do the next best thing. Join us!

Take Care Folks!

May you be healthy and strong. God’s blessings to all.

Celebrating Fat Tuesday with Sense of Place

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You know how you walk into a local bakery and the aroma of fresh baking fills your soul to its deepest depths? That was my husband and me this last weekend as we followed the Wisconsin Foodie trail in Sheboygan. Stepping into the first bakery was an aaah-romatic indulgence of Paczki. Coming upon the second was a heavenly whiff of hard rolls before we even walked through the door. Oh, how I swoon.

Good Smells, Good Marketing

They say good smells are good marketing. In truth, tapping into all the human senses is good marketing and our weekend getaway was a perfect example. Think cozy lights welcoming us as we arrived at our B&B. Or a friendly hubbub at the local foods cafe. All of these absorbed together created a memorable image of Sheboygan, an image which, jargonly speaking, can be referred to as “sense of place.”

Defining Sense of Place

Sense of place is the impression we get from a place. It’s the look, the feel, the sounds—it’s the complete physical and emotional lens through which we experience a place. 

When it comes to your business, sense of place is equally important. It’s an element of your brand. Whether it’s your venue, your website, your logo…they all evoke a sense of place.

NEED HELP WITH YOUR SENSE OF PLACE?

What I’m Working on This Month

I was proud to participate in an upcoming toolkit called “Amplify Our Voices: Connecting Organic Women Farmers with the Media.” It’s put together by Renewing The Countryside and coming out soon. Join their newsletter! 

What I’m Tuned Into This Month

  1. Paczki Day! Everyone is Polish on Paczki Day, so Happy Fat Tuesday to all!
     
  2. Gastrophysics, Charles Spence. A little science-heavy for my right brain, but interesting nonetheless. Eating is multi-sensory, meaning there’s truth to Good Smells, Good Marketing. 
     
  3. “At Berea College, Students Craft a Bright Future, Tuition-Free,” Are you a maker deciding on colleges? Interesting article from an equally interesting magazine.
     
  4. The Corner Table Podcast: Food Photography, A beef farmer recently lamented that the food photographer he hired altered his meat presentations, leaving them inedible. Yep, sorry, but I bet they looked tasty good in the photos. I’m suggesting he listen to this podcast.

Winter’s Hope Brings Summer’s Bounty

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It’s called the seed catalog effect. It’s when outside the January winds blow and inside we cozy up with seed catalogs, and it’s then that our green thumbs become their most ambitious. There’s something about those glorious displays of bounty that brings hope to the new year. They’re a promise that spring will most certainly come and, yes, this will be the best gardening year ever. 

Inevitably though, reality sets in—like six months later when we’re trellising those 15 varieties of tomatoes and we wonder what we were thinking when we started all those seeds.

Just Like Our Online Marketing Plans

Our January gardening plans are often like our marketing plans. How many of you made New Year resolutions for marketing your business and already have fallen behind? Rather than getting down on yourself, think in terms of the seed catalog effect and realize that maybe you were simply overly ambitious.

With all the online marketing options available today, it’s easy to become overwhelmed. Website, eNewsletters, social media, blogging, podcasts, videos—goodness, how does one keep up? 

You can’t keep up. You can’t do them all. Instead, consider these three tips for establishing a marketing plan.

  1. Identify Your Target Audience (Profitable Consumer)
    What social media platforms are they using? When are they using these platforms and for what? For example, if you have a farmers market stand in a business district, chances are your customers are white collar professionals using LinkedIn. On the other hand, if most of your customers are retirees, you certainly don’t need to bother with LinkedIn. Study your customers and go online where they go. 
  2. Define Your Objectives
    What are your goals for online marketing? To educate? Write a blog or shoot videos. To establish relationships? Do Facebook and Instagram. To make announcements? Shoot an eNewsletter or a Facebook post. Research which social media platforms match your objectives and align your marketing to them. 
  3. Recognize Your Time, Resources, and Skills
    Yes, online marketing is free—you likely already have a computer, smart phone, and use social media. But it also takes time, resources, and skills. Shooting a video on YouTube takes more than posting a picture on Instagram. Writing a blog takes more than posting on Facebook. Limit your social media to 1-2 platforms you know you can handle. When you’ve mastered them and feel ready for more, add another platform using the same discerning practices. 

Looking to ramp up your marketing in 2020? Adunate can help grow your business through a unique brand and successful marketing practices.

LET’S WORK TOGETHER

What I’m Working On This Month

It’s that website time of year and this month’s feature is Hymns in My Heart, a greeting card business filled with the rich, spiritual language of hymns. We’ll be going live in the weeks ahead, so stay tuned!

What I’m Tuned In To This Month

  1. Edible Potluck: Joy Manning’s podcast for food lovers. Here she features Wisconsin heritage wheat farmer Charlie Tennessen of Anarchy Acres. Also what gadget will be the next Instant Pot? 
  2. Immigrant Wheat: Charlie’s article in Edible Milwaukee magazine.
  3. She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement: Powerful people should not silence the voice of others. A interesting read on the importance of free press and investigative journalism. 
  4. 90-Day Gospel Reading Plan: Part of the Bystander series by Hope Lake Country. I’m perpetually 2-3 days behind but sticking with it nonetheless. Paired with the sermon series, it makes for good discussion.

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