In early 2010, the University of Minnesota, Crookston, approached us. Their goal? To get potential students’ attention by reaching them in new ways.
How do students communicate? Would they want a phone call? Forget it. Fax? No way. How about a letter in the mail? Trash it. How could we break through the clutter?
Email was our solution, but not just any “canned” email. We wanted to make it personalized—custom to their specific career interests and college concerns.
How it worked
We used the Engage email marketing platform to create campaign messages that were highly personalized. Gleaned from online form submissions, email content empathized with each individual’s pre-college excitement and anxiety and encouraged students to visit campus. Simply put, if prospects visit, they apply.
Here's a sample personalized email from a UMC admissions counselor.
Beyond the direct, personalized emails, we used landing pages, surveys and a t-shirt incentive as part of the data collection process. Later, communications came from admissions counselors representing prospective students’ geography and current students studying in their field.
Listen as Eric Piela, Flint’s digital marketing specialist, explains the email campaign in full detail:
Here’s the real ROI
For fall 2010, there were 493 new students enrolled at the U of M, Crookston (a 12 percent increase in enrollment from 2009), and 250 of them were influenced by the Engage email marketing campaign—that’s 51 percent!
Teens can be tricky to reach, but we spoke to them in a way they understood and appreciated. How have you adjusted your message or delivery to connect with your target audience?
Phil Hunt is one creative dude. He spends his days in the office writing copy and thinking outside the box. Though he loves his job, Phil’s job is to express things for other people. That’s why, after hours, Phil tunes into his punk rock side.
“If you’re a creative person, I think you need to find your own outlets—even if you’re just bashing out silly songs and hollering,” Phil explains.
He discovered punk rock as a 12-year-old skateboarder. “The skating has subsided with age, but I still have an insatiable appetite for music.” Attracted to the seeming ease of punk rock (a genre of music where sheer gall counts at least as much as actual talent), Phil and friends started playing music in garages and quonsets about 19 years ago.
Phil, second from left, chills with his band, Les Dirty Frenchmen.
He’s had “little to no break in the action” since. Phil has played in four real bands that played local and regional stages—and a couple of one-off, fake bands. He’s only toured widely with Trans Ams, a group he played with in college. “None of the groups were very popular, but we’ve had some good reviews.” You can listen to Phil’s current band, Les Dirty Frenchmen, on Myspace or find them on Facebook.
Phil concludes, “It’s like writing or drawing or anything else. It’s just fun to sit around and pound out the little ideas in your head.”
Get to know a Flintster: Q + A with Phil
What’s your dream job?
It’s a copywriter cliché, but I’d like to write something substantial one day, like a novel or a screenplay—even if it’s not my day job. I have a bunch of half-baked manuscripts on several hard drives.
Which job would you not want to have?
Anything that requires using a telephone for more than a few minutes each day.
What was your first job?
I bagged and carried groceries at the Farmer’s Store in Hallock, Minn.
What did it teach you?
Put cans on the bottom. Place bread on top. Bananas should be protected from the elements in a paper bag. Dry ice is fun and also dangerous. If it’s not busy, straighten shelves.
What is one thing you’d be willing to practice for an hour a day?
Drawing. I used to draw all the time but only recently got back into it. I’m rusty but it’s relaxing.
What’s the best advice you ever got?
I’ve always liked this line from David Eggers a lot. I think it’s good advice.
“I like new things, projects, plans, getting people together and doing something, trying something, even when it’s corny or stupid. I am not good at saying no. And I do not get along with people who say no. When you die, and it really could be this afternoon, under the same bus wheels I’ll stick my head if need be, you will not be happy about having said no.”
When the cause pulls at our heartstrings, doing pro bono work is both rewarding and meaningful. We help because we want to make a difference in our little corner of the world.
One such client: Nokomis Child Care Center in Fargo. This past spring, we helped with the planning, public relations and design of their Big Bikes & Little Tykesmotorcycle run and party fundraising event.
The target audience? Motorcycle riders between ages 35-60. The key message? Have fun while supporting a good cause and raising funds to help children that are in financial and emotional trouble.
For the launch of their event, our public relations team, two designers and two account managers helped by:
Designing a new logo
Providing design and copy for various billboards, ads, save-the-dates, invites, posters, banners, news releases, newsletters and more
The first-ever event took place May 28, 2011, and was a huge success. The motorcycle ride and after-party raised over $19,000 for children in need who qualify to attend Nokomis Child Care Center. We’re also happy to report that Big Bikes & Little Tykes will host its second annual event in June of 2012, with a new goal of raising $40,000 for the kids.
Event director Caileen Heuertz explains, “There are people who want things to happen, there are people who watch things happen and there are people who make things happen. Big Bikes & Little Tykes made things happen for these kids.”
Intern Kathryn and project coordinator Christy share a laugh.
This is a guest post written by Kathryn Berg, a summer 2011 public relations intern at Flint Communications.
Home from Georgetown for summer break, I nervously arrived at Flint for my first-day orientation. My experience that day hinted that an internship at Flint was something special. Touring the office, I didn’t feel like an intern at all. People didn’t ask me to get coffee for them—they asked me to get coffee with them. We all knew I’d be going back to school at summer’s end, but everyone still made me feel like a true Flintster, from my very first day onwards.
I had no idea what went on in the PR world, but figured that didn’t matter because I would only be doing “grunt work” anyway. I was wrong. My mentor, Melissa, set me to work on day one promoting Special Olympics, and my assignments became progressively more involved as the weeks continued and I learned more.
What I’ve learned
As it turns out, my basic knowledge of PR mixed with Melissa’s astute guidance was enough for me to grow, learn and succeed. Today, I can confidently draw up a mean spreadsheet, pitch a story to an editor, build smart media lists and track down just about anything on the internet. My biggest achievement as a shy girl: I can now talk to just about anyone on the phone without my hands shaking!
This internship has taught me countless lessons about public relations, and I am sincerely grateful to have learned more about the field with which I’ve become so enamored. There are so many different aspects to what goes on at Flint that I was eager to go to work every day to find out what new thing I would discover about PR. (Never in my life have I woken up before 7 a.m. and been pleased about it, until this summer!)
As much as I’ve learned about Flint and public relations, I’ve learned so much more about myself. This summer has pushed me to become more confident, more outgoing and more self-assured. I’m no longer worried about what to do when I graduate this spring, which is a seriously exciting development! I stumbled into a field that I really love, and I (almost) can’t wait until I graduate and can dive back in.
If I could change anything about this internship, I can honestly say that I would have wanted to spend more time here. Public relations is all about relationships, and building strong relationships takes time—much more time than a summer internship offers. But, with the time I did have, I was able to get my feet wet and learn the basics.
Tip: Without a fabulously engaged Facebook page already in place, this successful campaign would never have been possible.
In July 2010, West Acres mall created a Facebook page. Less than a year later, a call for entries in a design contest proved that the time and energy used to build an engaged group of fans through awareness advertising, contests, and good, frequent content truly paid off.
To celebrate Earth Day, West Acres invited all designers with a passion for green fashion to participate in the first ever Design Green, Win Green Contest. The rules were to design any fashion item using only recycled materials. The most creative and fashionable concepts would win prizes, including a $1,000 grand prize Mall Card and up to $300 Mall Cards for runners-up.
Beyond sharing the contest and event details on Facebook, West Acres emailed local colleges to invite students, targeting those interested in fashion and design. They also used in-mall promotional signage.
Runway-worthy media attention
Nearly two dozen talented designers participated, and the entries were displayed in the mall during Earth Week. After the judging panel selected the top five designers, West Acres invited them to a special awards ceremony, where they were honored and awarded their prizes. The event also drew impressive local media attention, including offline print and broadcast coverage.
Watch a recap of the contest:
Blurring the lines
This contest never would have been as successful without an active, engaged Facebook page already in place. Creating a small business Facebook page the week before wouldn’t have done the trick. Good Facebook pages take time and energy, fresh thinking and conversation building. West Acres accomplished this over an eight-month timeframe, and continues to build connections with customers on Facebook.
The direct ROI of social media can sometimes be hard to prove, but the West Acres design contest is a perfect example of how nontraditional marketing tactics can blur into traditional results. By fashionably using social media, West Acres Shopping Center was able to spread awareness on an extremely low budget.
How have you colored outside the traditional lines in your marketing tactics? Have you ever seen online tactics garner offline results?
Good question. We do more than sit in our cubicles, talk on Skype and brainstorm in the conference room. Creative magic happens in our offices every day, but sometimes we forget to tell you about it.
Here, we’ll be sharing client successes, all as a result of pairing smart research and strategies with our creative juices. We’ll highlight recently completed projects or ones currently in the fast-paced hustle and bustle of agency life.
There’s rarely a dull moment inside our walls, so we hope to reflect that on the blog. Starting tomorrow, we’ll be keeping you in the know by regularly updating on Tuesdays and Fridays.
Tuesday posts will help you know what our clients are up to, what we’re keeping busy with and why we’re all celebrating.
Flint Ladies
Friday posts will provide some additional insight into our employees and their lives outside of the 8-5 grind (though, it’s unfair to call it the “grind” when you’re loving what you do, right?). Frankly, our work wouldn’t be spectacular if our employees weren’t, and having lives and passions outside of work keeps us going strong.
(And since our agency just turned 65 this year, we like to think we know a thing or two about going strong.)
Over the past couple of years, we’ve had the privilege of working with social media consultant Jay Baer, author of one of the best social media blogs in the world: Convince & Convert. Every once in a while, Flint experts get the chance to write guest posts on his wildly popular blog.
Here’s an example of strategic social media in action for our client, SunButter.
SunButter sunflower seed spread is like peanut butter, but totally peanut-free and made from sunflower seeds, so it’s perfect for people with peanut allergies. It’s also delicious, as fans on the Internet will attest.
These were the kind of conversations we found when we started listening to people talking about SunButter in 2010. The only way to explain how positive the results were is to say that people are crazy about this stuff. We’re extremely fortunate to work with a client that is so well-loved by such a passionate fan base. It was a logical next step to create a social media strategy that turned these fans into SunButter advocates.
If you’ve spent any time on Google lately (and let’s face it, who hasn’t?), you’ve probably noticed the evolvement of local search. Local-based results now occupy a majority of the first page, stealing prime real estate from both paid and organic results—not great news for advertisers who have invested a lot of time and money into paid and organic search efforts for localized keywords.
Don’t get me wrong, paid and organic search are still very effective and should be embraced by advertisers. It just surprises me that local search—perhaps the easiest, most inexpensive category of search—is so often overlooked by businesses.
Last month at TechCrunch Disrupt, Marissa Mayer, Google’s vice president of location and local services, revealed that 20 percent of searches across Google properties are local in nature. Even more impressive: that number doubles to 40 percent when referencing mobile searches. Talk about opportunity.
Get started by verifying your listings with the major search engines. Create accounts with Google Places and the Bing Business Portal, and follow the steps to control your listing in local search results. You’ll want to dress up your listing by adding a business description, photos, videos and any other content that might attract customers. Make sure to select relevant search categories where you want your listing to appear. If you have multiple business locations, don’t fret—you can add multiple listings under a single account. And the best part? It’s totally free!
Once you’ve tackled the obvious ones (I suppose Yahoo! Local should also fall into that category, though enhanced listings are not free), expand your listings into other local business directories, such as Yelp and Citysearch. Customers will search for and—very candidly—discuss local businesses in these popular environments. Advertiser fees and capabilities will vary by platform.
The number one rule with local search is to pay attention! Not only should you maintain your listings and keep your information up-to-date, accurate and consistent across directories, but also be aware of and respond to customer reviews. As consumers, we all know the impact that both rave and negative reviews can have on our purchasing decisions. Thank your advocates and appease your adversaries.
WestmorelandFlint is proud and excited to be a major sponsor of the 2011 Northland Social Media Conference on May 25, where nationally known social media strategist Jay Baer will present the keynote address.
We have been collaborating with Jay to create social media strategies for our clients for two years now, and we feel extremely fortunate that he is coming to Duluth to share his knowledge of the social web with our community.
Jay writes the world’s No. 3 social media blog, Convince & Convert, and is also co-author of the just-released social media playbook, “The NOW Revolution,” which was voted the No. 3 business book in the March edition of Inc. Magazine.
The day-long conference at Lake Superior College in Duluth will focus on how businesses can harness the power of today’s dynamic social media environment to create faster, smarter, more-social companies. After Jay’s keynote speech in the morning, WestmorelandFlint’s social media and public relations strategists, along with other northland business leaders, will present on a number of topics geared toward small business owners, nonprofits, and public relations and marketing professionals.
Let’s be honest here: this very blog doesn’t exist just because we think it should.
The Flint Group has a blog for many reasons. Here, we share work that excites us. We celebrate our clients’ successes. We chat about our industry. We want you to know us. The real “us.”
That’s why we blog. We have a strategy, a purpose, a reason for its existence.
But even with a smart strategy in place, it’s easy to let a blog slip into the shadows. Blogging takes time and effort and some serious dedication.
Blogging is hot right now. From teenagers to dads, from small startups to Fortune 500s, everyone’s doing it. Writer or not, if you have a keyboard (or a smartphone or a tablet), you can have a blog.
Every once in a while you hear the rumor: blogging is dead. Riiight… That’s simply not true. In fact, blogging is booming. Take Google’s platform, Blogger, for instance. Users are writing 250,000 new words a minute. That’s almost 5,000 new novels a day!
Needless to say, blogging is freakishly alive. In fact, we’ve barely even scratched the surface.
Well, I think I’ve reached the mini-skirt level. What’s that, you ask? In the words of our friend Jay Baer:
“A blog post is like a mini-skirt. It has to be short enough to be interesting, but long enough to cover the subject.”
The professionals at WestmorelandFlint are always hungry for new marketing trends, techniques or hot topics that we can share with friends and clients. Watch for a regular stream of insightful information – or join in the conversation.
In July 2010, West Acres mall created a 
te that he is coming to Duluth to share his knowledge of the social web with our community.
