DIGITAL
Social, Web & Email
Since it feels impossible to go a single day without seeing a screen, digital design is more important than ever. Digital engage is an ever changing landscape, constantly evolving best practices and creative execution.
Social Media
Likes, Impressions, & Shares - Oh my!
Social Media is the greatest marketing tool of the 21st century. It has given both small and large brands an equal playing field to share a message directly with their target audience. Each social platform has its own personality, characteristics, and unique set of users. Our job as marketers is to find the platform that best suits the target audience and attracts the intended customer. The objective, find the folks looking to engage with your brand or story where they want to see it most.
My personal philosophy for social advertising and posting follows the Gary V, “Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook" mentality. The goal is to entertain, educate, and inform your audience to build their trust - only after gaining your audience’s trust will they be perceptive to a sales pitch.
We’re all aware that the ads on our social feeds power the apps that allow us to read news headlines and look at photos of our friends however, no one actually wants to be sold to while scrolling (except for maybe my wife, she says it makes shopping even simpler). My objective is to create “thumb stopping” content that forces users to pause and engage with your brand’s posts. Here are a few of my favorite campaigns from the last few years.
In 2020, New Park Brewing was forced to temporarily close their tap room due to the Covid 19 pandemic. Like most businesses, they had no alternative but to change their business model from direct retail sales to delivery. Pivot! My wife Nicole and I were tasked with creating an announcement for the change as well as weekly content showcasing the beer lineup and delivery schedule. We leveraged custom graphics, dynamic photos, and animations to connect with loyal and new customers alike. We continued with this format until delivery services halted in 2022.
When quarantine swept across the nation in March of 2020, most people were stuck at home left to their own devises. At Norcom we used our brand stance as a mortgage lender to encourage people to stay at home and offer suggestions of fun things they could do alone or with family members. We called the campaign “Make Yourself at Home" playing off the double entendres of being comfortable in one’s space and developing one’s emotional well-being by staying active and positive.
One of our main marketing focuses at Norcom Mortgage is powering and supporting the recruiting team to attract new sales talent. For this Top 10 campaign, we showcased the best parts of working at Norcom and selectively served the ads to mortgage professionals on LinkedIn within targeted geographic areas.
You’ve Got Mail!
Email remains one of my favorite marketing tools. It’s one of the few tactics that requires some sort of action - an email will sit unread on your inbox until you read it or delete it - in either case, if you’re strategic about your subject line and preview text, you’re still getting an impression! A well designed email can tell you a lot about a consumer’s interests - when they open the email, how many times they open it, if they click and even what they click on. This extremely cost effective tool provides a ton of insight to marketers to optimize communication and gauge consumer intent. We’ve come a long way from the days of dial-up and AOL, but the future of e-mail marketing is bright!
I’ve had the pleasure of designing and deploying email campaigns in Constant Contact, MailChimp, and numerous CRMs - here are a few of my favorites.
