FINALLY, spring has arrived! And, just as you get the urge to shake out carpets and wash windows, use the time to clean up your Marketing “house.” Here are some chores:
1. Check that your fonts and type treatment match across all your printed stationery and business cards. If you use black for the address on your envelope, but a different color on your letterhead, make a note to change that before the next print run.
2. If you have a blog or news section on your website, make sure you update it. Take a moment to write in advance a few more entries. Make a monthly appointment to keep the writing up. Even brief entries are better than none or very outdated ones.
3. Proofread your website. You would be shocked how many typos and editorial inconsistencies we see! Tip: Take 10 minutes each day and read aloud one section at a time. Reading aloud is an excellent way to hear and spot errors that the eye just glosses over when reading silently.
4. If you or your marketing department take the in-house photos for printed communications, make sure the resolution on the camera is set at a high resolution, which ensures better print quality. Your camera’s manual should tell you how. Typically, you select “menu” and then “resolution,” “image quality” or “image size.” Choose either “high,” “best” or the largest pixel number shown. Press the “set” or “ok” button to lock in your choice. Tip: Taking high resolution photos eats up memory. Regularly download and/or erase images.
5. Scan and upload all the latest newsletters, brochure and other printed materials to your website.
6. Liven up your employee newsletter with a new feature–perhaps wellness tips, a closer look at a department or even a restaurant review of local lunch places.
Everyone wants a blog added to their website and with good reason. Blog entries are an excellent way to keep your audiences up-to-date on your organization’s developments or give your take on items in the news. They are also great ways to launch e-marketing that drives traffic to the blog. A new blog entry is a good reason to update social media sites, too. But, it’s worth stating the obvious: Blogs only work if they are written. There is nothing worse than going to a blog to see a blank “under construction” page or that the last entry is from a year ago.
Our writers have helped many of her clients avoid this moribund state. In some instances, they have written blog entries regularly (say, on a monthly basis) or, as in the case for one hospital system, edited clinician-submitted entries on patient wellness topics into blog-ready, compelling copy.
> If you need help keeping your blog up to date, give Lazzaro Designs a call or shoot us an email.
Maryellen Lazzaro is pleased to add Yes She Can, Inc. to the client roster. Maryellen has created a favicon for the organization’s website.
Insight: Favicons are images that are used by web browsers to show a graphical representation of the site being visited. They are used in the address bar, in the links bar, in the bookmarking area and in browsing tabs. Some browsers also show favicons whenever you create a shortcut link for the corresponding website in your desktop and your mobile device.
In this case, the client did not have an obvious element in their logo to adapt for a favicon. Maryellen instead used a white checkmark within a pink square suggesting the organization’s mission, which is empowering young women with autism to advance within the workplace.
Maryellen will also be developing infographics for Yes She Can, Inc.
Resource to share: Realfavicongenerator is a free resource for generating .ico files for your root directory. Just provide them with a 260×260 pixel image.
> Or, if you need help creating a favicon, give Lazzaro Designs a call or shoot us an email.
Lazzaro Designs created this infographic for Healthcare Leaders of New York, which was included in its first 2015 e-newsletter (which we also write, design and project manage), as well as on its website and in other social media. The infographic dramatically tallies the professional organization’s end-of-year accomplishments and statistics. Infographics continue to be a contemporary, on-point way to summarize and present data and information. They are notable for how well they translate both in print and on line.
> If you are are interested in infographics, give Lazzaro Designs a call or shoot us an email.
