Content/Writing

What Do La Conner Tulips Have To Do With Content Marketing?

Posted by M. Sharon Baker
What Do La Conner Tulips Have To Do With Content Marketing?

By far, the most popular post on this blog is Where I work: La Conner WA Tulip fields.  While it is a year old, it gets many hits.

That’s because it’s April and once again visitors, north in Vancouver, B.C.  and south in Seattle, want to know what’s happening in the tulip fields of Skagit County, where I live.

Last year, we had tons of sun, which allowed me to go out and take some good photos.

This year, it has been wet and cold, and going into the third weekend of tulip time, we’ve had just one chance to get out and take photos on a sunny day.

We took most of these photos this morning.

Visitors might be disappointed this year to learn that the field workers are clearing fields daily, thinning the ranks, which makes for not so good photos.

And at least one field I thought I was going to shoot went from nearly blooming to all flowers gone – yes, gone, the next day.

Washington Bulb Co.’s largest field available to the public on Best Road is currently closed.

I’m not sure if that’s due to the rain or bloom harvest going on.

It has the purple tulips I really wanted to shoot, but this morning at 7:30 at least three groups of workers were taking off the blooms.

Are people across the country buying tulips at record numbers?

Washington Bulb Co. is the largest bulb supplier in North America, and I can only guess that they harvesting to fill a boatload of orders.

Or the rain is mucking things up. In case you are wondering, it’s cold and pouring rain this afternoon.

 

So what do La Conner’s tulips have to do with content marketing?

Lifting the curtains from time to time helps put a face on your company.

Prospective customers are curious and want to know what happens at your place.

While bios can tell you a little about each person, adding additional content like news articles, posts on a blog or even simply sharing photos provides added depth and fosters connections.

Two good examples of this happen on Compendium Inc.’s blog and Gail Harker Creative Studies Center blog.

(Full disclosure, I have worked with Compendium and now work with Gail but I have nothing to do with their blogs.)

 

Scroll down on Compendium’s blog to the post about being named  Small Business of the Year and you’ll see a cool video of their digs.

On their press page, you can learn more by reading the many magazine articles that have been written about them.

Sharing what’s happening at the Creative Studies Center and what students are up to is central to Gail Harker’s blog.

Anyone interested in taking Gail’s art and design or stitch classes gets a good sense about what the Center is all about and the quality of teaching happening just by browsing her posts.

For me, writing about the tulips gives you a chance to see the wonderful place I’m living, and gives me a chance to show off my photography.

 

P.S.  Please don’t pin my copyrighted photos on Pinterest.

You also won’t find these on Facebook. I’m not participating in either social platform.

I’d rather you send people to this post via Twitter or Delicious, or tell me below that you like them.

I’m thinking about taking my best shots and making a postcard set.

In the meantime, tell me:

How do you provide a glimpse inside your company to the outside world? Please comment below.

© Photos by M. Sharon Baker

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Content Marketing/Public Relations/Writing

Creating Content for Three New Customers

Posted by M. Sharon Baker
Creating Content for Three New Customers

copyright Lisa Harkins

Writing and creating content for customers keeps me busy and steals time from keeping this blog updated.

I’ve added three new clients in the past month or two and want to share them with you.

I’m the perfect target audience for the largest of the three, the Gail Harker Creative Studies Center.

If you’ve read my Longer bio and contact web page, you know I once thought of pursuing an art career and that I like to draw.

I first learned about Gail when I wrote about a fiber art exhibit at the La Conner Quilt and Textile Museum for the La Conner Weekly News.

Copyright Lisa Harkins

The Gail Harker Creative Studies Center moved to La Conner and now occupies the town’s architecturally significant barn, which was remodeled in the late 1990s.

If you’ve visited La Conner, you’ve seen it as you’ve come into town.

The center offers color, design, stitch and fiber art courses, taught by internationally known artist, author and educator Gail Harker.

Gail basically has a master’s degree in texture and fiber art as well as contemporary embroidery, also known as stitch.

More than 1,500 students have studied at the Center, which offers professional and diploma programs in design and stitch. Several of her students have gone on to win national and international acclaim.

Gail has a wonderful blog; its well written, has fabulous photos, showcases students and their art and contains lively guest posts by her students.

Copyright Jarina Moss

But only her students seem to know about the blog, and the school, so I’m helping her turn up the volume and get noticed.

First, I created a press room page for the website, and then I wrote a press release about her move to La Conner.

We leveraged the press release to pitch the media about the Center’s graduation exhibition, which helped 350 people learn more about the colorful art that takes place at the studio.

copyright Gail Harker

Now, we’re telling the world about the center’s first online course, Level 1 Color Studies.

In addition to generating interest in local newspapers and magazines, I will be looking for blogs Gail can guest post on, associations she can join or learn from.

I will also add the center to the worldwide radar screen by getting listed on education sites.

We’ll also be leveraging her base of students, and have created an email campaign that highlights content pertaining to the onlince color studies course.

And I will be pitching Gail’s story and the Center to national trade and women’s publications.

I’ll be writing about my other two new clients, Intuit’s Small Business Blog, and BB Ranch, a new Seattle butcher shop, later this week.

In the meantime, check out Gail’s blog and send me any PR ideas or suggestions you may have, or simply tell me what you like about Gail’s blog.

Bookmark it or sign up for the RSS feed – you’ll enjoy looking at the amazing art these women create.

 

 

 

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Case Studies/Content/Writing

Case Study: DKA Architecture – Contributed Articles Boost Awareness For Architect Firm

Posted by M. Sharon Baker
Case Study: DKA Architecture – Contributed Articles Boost Awareness For Architect Firm

Situation

Increase Awareness of Green, Sustainable Practices; Responsible ReUse Practices

As the world began building green, Seattle’s DKA Architecture decided to launch a major branding and positioning campaign.

The 25-year old architecture firm, known largely for the work of its founder Donald King, wanted to establish its name as a leading green player but also distinguish itself from the green hype.

Marketing director and managing partner Rico Quirindongo wanted the campaign to demonstrate DKA’s “commitment to building community through responsive design – design based upon the awareness that one does not build in a vacuum, but within a set of resources, cultures, practices, and values that radiate beyond the individual project.”

Quirindongo also wanted to keep DKA’s name prominent in what was becoming a very competitive marketplace as the recession and credit crunch hit.

Overnight projects were shelved, scrapped or canceled sending the commercial construction industry into a tailspin. DKA Architecture didn’t suffer much of a dent in its business because it operates in a different sector of the marketplace: working on nonprofit, government and school projects.

But competition for those projects increased greatly as those operating in the commercial sector started bidding on government projects. The increased competition made it even harder to stand out.

Approach

Establish Expertise in Local Publications with Bylined Contributed Articles

Part of Quirindongo’s branding and positioning plan included showcasing DKA’s good works in the community with contributed articles.

Writing articles about green practices and DKA projects on a regular basis increased DKA’s visibility and established the firm as a green expert. The articles showcased the firm’s green design skills, detailrf cost savings, and showed how much care and thought around culture, values and core functions DKA considers when tackling a renovation, remodel or new construction.

As a licensed architect who also juggles several projects as well as DKA’s marketing and new business development efforts, Quirindongo was extremely busy. While he enjoys contributing articles to industry publications, he knew tackling additional writing chores as part of the branding campaign would be way down on his weekly to-do list.

Asking DKA project managers to take on the task wasn’t a viable option due to their busy schedules.

So he turned to M. Sharon Baker, a freelance writer who was helping DKA write articles for a client newsletter.

“After doing a great job on Seattle Public Schools BEX III capital projects articles, it was easy to see that Sharon was the logical choice to work with us for articles on our rebranding,” said Quirindongo.

“Sharon has an excellent writing style that communicates easily,” he said. “As a journalist, she has relationships with local and regional editors and understands what is needed to create a good story while at the same time advancing our messaging.”

Baker also know where and when to place the articles that best fit DKA’s target audience.

Quirindongo liked that he could convey information in brief phone interviews, and that Baker didn’t need a lot of hand holding and was good at guiding the process from beginning – brainstorming ideas to writing the article with minimal revisions, to gathering photos – to end, which involved working with a publication’s editors and alerting company executives when articles ran.

The resulting articles ran in Seattle’s Daily Journal of Commerce, The Puget Sound Business Journal and Northwest Construction, among other publications. The articles included:

Results

“Sharon’s contributions were a key part of our achieving our goals for our branding and positing campaign,” Quirindongo said. “In addition, we had Sharon write two press releases as part of our 25th Anniversary campaign and pitch that news to several local newspapers and trade publications.”

DKA received many calls from past clients, partners and potential new customers every time an article or press release ran. And DKA earned ongoing recognition that Quirindongo knows further established DKA as a major player in designing, building and managing sustainable green projects.

 

Learn More about M. Sharon Baker’s Contributed Article and  Case Study Services  

 

ACRS, NAAM  Photos © DKA Architecture

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Content/Marketing/Writing

9 Things I learned at Marketing Prof U’s Marketing Writing Bootcamp

Posted by M. Sharon Baker
9 Things I learned at Marketing Prof U’s Marketing Writing Bootcamp

During June I attended Marketing Prof University’s Marketing Writing Bootcamp, an online conference lasting two weeks.

I decided to do this because:

  • I wanted a better handle on what problems marketers face since they are my target customer.
  • I wanted to brush up on my marketing knowledge since most of my knowledge comes from practice, observation, and one or two marketing classes in college – and that was eons ago.

Many of the points made about marketing writing were similar to what I already  know and do due to my journalism training: 

  • Keep things simple
  • Use active verbs
  • Write for your reader
  • Be very specific
  • Tell stories
  • Write great headlines and
  • Write in short, bite-sized chunks

These familiar tools are already in my writing toolkit.

Because of the varied corporate work I do writing case studies, articles, white papers, and other online and public relations content, I knew a lot about the different subjects being covered.

However, I did pick up nuggets that will make my work even better.

Here are 9 nuggets I learned from the MPU bootcamp experts:  

1)  Everyone wants to be happier, smarter, healthier, richer, safer, more secure, more attractive and more successful, and you need to include at least one in your marketing copy.  A good reminder from Bill Schley.

2) If you operate in a commodity-like service area, get yourself a dominant selling idea. Bill Schley. 

3) Get buyoff on the outline of a white paper, which speeds the time it takes to create a first draft. Get several people to look at the outline to get additional feedback.  From Stephanie Tilton.

4) When creating content, think of the frequently unasked questions and answer those. From Ann Handley.

5) Infographics are great ways to mix things up. But I haven’t had time to find any good tools.

Anne Handley gave us five tools or sites to check out, and Marketing Prof’s Veronica Maria Jarski created a cool infodoodle of Ann’s ideas, shown at left.  

The info-graphics sites are:

6) What does great content looks like? Anne Handley and others gave me a good list of companies they think are creating great content.

 I hope to check out and review some of these sites, and do another post. Here are a few: Marketo, ExactTarget, Open View Ventures, Daxko and Solany.

7) Find yourself a content buddy. Friends and colleagues can point out content ideas you miss because you are too close to a situation, concept or story. Regular conversations can spark great ideas.

I’ve actually done this with Carol Tice, my writing buddy. Simple conversations have turned in to blog post ideas for both of us. From Mark Levy.

8 ) Free writing can help you see fuzzy things clearly and helps you see options you may have missed, or content you could create, says Mark Levy.

9) Take a look at things you normally dismiss, examine them and ask “Who loves this and Why do they love it?” Your answers can reveal hidden content ideas, says Mark Levy.

I haven’t listened or read all the sessions, and I’ll share additional nuggets as I find them.

Are any of these nuggets new to you? What’s one marketing writing lesson you learned recently, or rediscovered? I’d love to hear from you.

 Infographic: Veronica Maria Jarski, Marketing Profs

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A Writer's Life/Writing

Why June Was A Blogging Bust

Posted by M. Sharon Baker
Why June Was A Blogging Bust

Like many bloggers, I have good intentions to blog at least once a week, and my earlier goal was to try to tap out two a week for my own blog.

But now, here I am at the end of the month and I’ve not a single post to my credit. This is my attempt to save face for June.

Here’s what my workload looked like this month:

  • Three blog posts for tree.com, my last as they are shutting down
  • Two articles and four emails for a high-tech lead nurturing campaign
  • Two press releases for a financial crowdfunding company 
  • Two Case Studies for RainToday.com, plus two interviews for an additional two case studies
  • One newspaper story for the La Conner Weekly News, on the the adoption of the last turkey in La Conner
  • Completition of a re-write of a patient guide for a LASIK practice.

 All total, that’s 11 projects for the month.

The list  doesn’t count the continuing work I’m doing to create a white paper and several web articles for a large consulting firm or the marketing outreach I’ve done to several prospects for new projects.

On top of these assignments:  

I also read or finished reading:

  • The little Big Things by Tom Peters
  • eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale by Ardath Albee 
  • Selling to Big Companies by Jill Konrath
  • Conversations with Tom Robbins edited by Liam Purdon and Beef Torrey

 I also welcomed three new distractions to my office in the middle of June, which is when my three teenagers went on summer break.

With the Fourth of July on Monday, I’m sure blogging will be way down on my list.

But I’m going to make an editorial calendar of all the ideas I’ve been noodling, and have saved all over the place – notes, in notebooks, on my computer, etc.

I really want to share what I learned at MPU’s bootcamp, the emerging trend of corporate journalists, and of course, what makes great content.

I promise to do better in July. Really. Honestly.

How Was Your June? Are things picking up for you or are they slowing down? I’d love to hear from you.

 

 

Flag and Too Late Photos copyright M. Sharon Baker

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