Against the Grain: Advertising

In today’s world, where conversations are shared across multiple platforms at the click of a button, you can spread your brand’s marketing message to your target audiences easier than ever before. Whether you use traditional outlets or embrace social media, make sure that your brand’s message stays consistent across all communications platforms.

Here are a few things you should consider:

• Develop a few key marketing messages. Identify your top products and services and explain what distinguishes them from your competition. Create talking points to help your customers understand how they will benefit from your products or services. Review and update your key messages regularly to share recent data, support marketing campaigns and promote new products or services.
• Maintain your image. Visual branding is an important part of your integrated marketing communications plan because your logo, print collateral and website design tells your company’s story. Create a style guide specifying fonts, logo sizes and color schemes to keep a consistent look. You should also incorporate your visual branding on all official communications, e.g., newsletters, press releases and your company’s Twitter background and Facebook profile picture. When you create a consistent look, people will begin to automatically associate your visual branding with your company.
• Get the word out. Don’t shy away from social media! It is a powerful communication tool that allows you to support your traditional marketing efforts and listen and interact with your target audience online. You can tailor your communications to fit an online forum but the key messages should stay the same. Remember, when you communicate via social media, you are representing your brand online so always be transparent, respond promptly and be respectful of others’ opinions.

Integrated marketing campaigns allow you to use traditional and online media platforms to reach your target audiences. Keep your messaging consistent across all communication channels to raise awareness about your products and services to create a stronger brand.

If advertising was a true science, it would be easy to evaluate the effectiveness of a media campaign by measuring points and metrics like impressions, click-throughs, reach and frequency. However, advertising is part art as well, and “soft” factors—like added value promotions—must be taken into consideration when evaluating a campaign’s overall success.

Trilix’s media team works hard to build lasting relationships with advertising sales representatives, and this can help them negotiate added value opportunities into each media buy. Trilix’s media buyers involve their sales reps in the planning process to maximize their clients’ advertising dollars, and in exchange, the media buyers are able to provide programming and promotional suggestions to increase deliverables and “soft” factors in their clients’ campaigns.

Some of the “soft” factors include:

• Live remotes and/or event sponsorships that can highlight clients’ products or services, and can be incorporated into promotional contests and giveaways.           
• News and weather sponsorships, and other on-air mentions, that can add reach and frequency but is not factored into the metrics.
• Social media promotions that are a cost-effective way to engage target audiences.
• Bonus spots, logo IDs, and banner ads that are just some of the added value opportunities that Trilix’s media buyers can negotiate on their clients’ behalf.

Trilix’s media team understands their clients’ key messages, target audiences and overall objectives, and creates custom advertising schedules based on their budgets. Trilix’s media buyers can help negotiate value added promotions and great rates to maximize your advertising dollars and the impact of your company’s next campaign. To learn more, email info@trilixgroup.com.

In our day-to-day life at Trilix, we all do some form of writing or designing. Today, Trilix sat down with production manager (also known as proofreading extraordinaire), Leng Vong, to gather some of her editing knowledge.

Trilix: What is your process for proofing something?
Leng: First, I prioritize the projects. Then, I look at the piece as one big picture. I ask myself, “What is the purpose of this piece?” “Who is the audience?” “What is the message trying to convey?” Once I figure out the big picture, I read over the whole piece once to look for obvious errors. Then, I make sure to look at it once more to make sure I didn’t miss anything.

Trilix: Why is proofing something so important in our business?
Leng: In our business, we are helping our clients tell their message to their audience. We need to make sure that nothing goes out of our doors with errors, typos or inconsistency.

Trilix: What advice would you give a PR professional, designer or copywriter?
Leng: I would tell them to look over their own work and double check everything. Sometimes it helps to take a step back from the project and come back to it later. Also, people need to make sure to research the client, projects and previous examples. It’s also important to know the messaging, language and tones to provide consistency.

Trilix: What are your biggest pet-peeves in proofing?
Leng: Misused hyphens, the wrong use of dashes and extra spaces!

Trilix: What error do you see the most?
Leng: I see the wrong use of dashes, extra spaces, the wrong forms of words and run on sentences the most when I proof something.

Leng’s other tips –

• Try reading the sentence backwards. It helps misspelled words stand out.
• Read one word at a time, instead of the whole sentence. This trick also helps misspelled words stand out.

Thanks, Leng! I think we can all say we learned a lot today.

Are you keeping up with the world of digital media? Do you know who visits your website, where they’re from and how they got there?

The expansion of digital media over the years has opened new doors to businesses and organizations, allowing them to see how many people visited their website, how long they were on the page and even where they came from. These simple details are extremely important from a marketing standpoint. Advertisers can pinpoint what referred the visitor to the site; what age, race, and gender the individual is; and what pages bring in the most views. This drives future content of your site to ensure you’re targeting the content your visitors want.

As a professional marketing agency, we have the tools and resources you need to market to your customers and stay on-top of social media, mobile marketing and technology trends. We subscribe to daily blogs, articles and news sites to stay one step ahead of the competition, and exceed our customers’ expectations.

Website analytics is only the first step to understanding the world of digital media. It takes experience to interpret the information and develop sound marketing strategies to provide your customers the online content they need. Trilix’s interactive team can help you create a web presence to reach your integrated marketing goals.

Manufacturers who don't have digital marketing expertise on staff often rely on the growing number of consultants who can do everything from web development to social media marketing. This makes sense from a financial standpoint, however it may not make sense from a branding standpoint.

Digital marketing programs need to be handled by people who understand your marketing strategies as well as they understand technology.

When working with digital marketing consultants, take the time to share your marketing strategies and objectives with them. Make certain they understand your brand and your industry. Educate them about your competitors. If they don't get it, chances are you won't get what you're after — a coordinated marketing program!

Trilix is a full-service advertising agency headquartered in the Midwest with expertise in helping businesses market effectively and drive sales success. Learn more at www.trilixgroup.com or email Todd Senne at tsenne@trilixgroup.com.