Happy Halloween, You Ghouls!
2024 is nearly behind us—spooky, isn't it?
Don’t let the ghosts of poor planning haunt you in 2025. Get started now before the new year creeps in by:
- Checking your brand: Does your messaging still feel right, or could it use a little freshening up? Is your brand consistent across your marketing channels? Or is it time to update that packaging?
- Planning Content: Sketch out your content plan for the first quarter of 2025. Remember to factor in any seasonal trends or big industry events.
- Setting goals: What goals do you want to achieve? Maybe it’s growing your business by 10% or bringing on some extra hands to help.
While you're simmering on those, here are five things to inspire you and share this month.
- The IMTA Raises Over $50k with Email Marketing
- YouTube for Business
- Kit Kat: A Sweet Brand Refresh
- 5 Easy Ways to Humanize Your Website
- Notes from How Design Live 2024 Conference
Let’s make 2025 your best year yet—no tricks, just treats! 🎃
#1 The IMTA Raises Over $50k with Email Marketing
Consistency matters. I partnered up with the good ol’ guys at the nonprofit International Mass Timber Alliance (IMTA) on their email marketing this year. We created email newsletters in MailChimp targeted at the log and mass timber community every other month. We not only raised awareness of their mission and raised $50,000 to support further testing, which is a solid 487% ROI!
#2 YouTube for Business
It's eerie how the universe works sometimes. A client and I were talking about setting up a YouTube channel and what the best strategy might be Then, low and behold, this episode from Social Media Marketing popped up on my notifications—YouTube for Businesses: a Step-by-Step System for Success on YouTube.
#3 Kit Kat: A Sweet Brand Refresh
One of my favorite presentations from HOW Design Live was by David Israel's Shelf Life. He hails from Sterling Brands and showcased the refresh of KitKat's brand identity. The redesign “celebrates the crispy, creamy taste of Kit Kat.” The logo lettering is meant to mimic a KitKat bar and, if broken off, would give a loud snap. (Image credit: Hershey.)
#4 Five Easy Ways to Humanize Your Website
If you read our blog post on how to Design Your Website to Rank Higher with Google, you know cutting and pasting copy and content from ChatGPT doesn't cut it and can actually hurt your rankings.
But how do you bring more of your authentic brand voice to your website and make it more human? Here are five tips I’ve picked up along the trail to help you connect and engage more with your people.
#5 What I Learned at HOW Design Live
My two biggest takeaways from the HOW Design Live Conference were —
- In the age of AI, the best way to stand out is to be human and authentic. AI is just another tool, and those who don't know how to use it will be left behind.
- Our job as marketers, writers, and designers is translating. Whether that's our clients' vision, messaging, or words into something their audience can understand, connect, and engage with.
But if you'd like to read up on everything I learned from Stephen Gates’ The Synergy of AI and Design to Exploring Your Profound Power to Unite with Pum Lefebure, you can sneak on over to my blog for all the goodies.
Check back now and then since it's taking me a long, hot second to sort through and distill all my notes into blog posts.
I help build brands. I love partnering with folks across the building materials, nonprofit, and consumer goods industries—big or small. I aim to help you get the good word out about your products, services, and mission so you can grow.