Archive for the ‘Tools of the Trade’ Category

How to Analyze the Success of a Media Campaign

When it comes to media buys, “how do we measure campaign success?” is the million-dollar question. It’s also a fair question, considering that media campaigns represent the bulk of a client’s marketing budget. These days, there’s a critical need to demonstrate return on investment.

My response is always the same: We measure and analyze the key metrics that matter the most to each client. We need to understand how our client defines success before we can even think about analyzing it: Continue reading »

Six Tips for Production Art Success

Someone from account service has just dropped off a job jacket, bulging at its seams and overflowing with page after page of red scribbles. They mention a strict 5 p.m. deadline as they quickly head for a meeting. As an art director at HCB Health, this situation is all too familiar.

After making a successful transition from production artist to art director three years ago, I thought my days of translating markups and making copy edits were over. That is, until I began working at HCB Health — a smaller agency compared to what I was used to. Here, you need to be able to do it all. So how does a not-so-detail-oriented art director jump onto an art production project?

These six tips will help you look like a master of all things production: Continue reading »

How to Effectively Respond to an RFP

Request for Proposal (RFP) responses are essential to growing your agency’s business. Unless you have a solid strategy to effectively compete for the business, you could potentially close the door to unknown opportunities.

Does your RFP feel like this? Image by DigitizedChaos.

That said, RFP responses can take time and resources away from existing client work, leaving you vulnerable. Set rules to follow when an RFP hits your inbox. Here’s how we at HC&B respond.

1. Understand what they’re asking for.

The executive summary or introduction should provide you with an indication of what the assignment is all about. Toward the back of the RFP is typically where you’ll find the deliverables list, which specifies response expectations. Use these two sections as starting points to understand if this opportunity is right for your business:

• Is it the right budget size and industry?
• Can we perform the services required?
• What is the time investment needed?

Continue reading »

Twitter Apps: Funny Names, Seriously Helpful in Managing the Twitterverse

Managing social networks for a thriving company is a full-time job — sometimes multiple persons’ full-time jobs. But a company rarely has the resources to hire someone solely to tweet, post on Facebook or maintain LinkedIn accounts.

As my agency twexpert, I am in charge of managing our @HCBHealth Twitter account. In December I put out tweets for @HCB Holidays, the Twitter account for our Healthy Holidays video promotion. Doing this along with my other job responsibilities and over the holidays could have been tough, but I found a few free Twitter apps that made my life much easier.

Top Three Free Twitter Tools You Shouldn’t Live Without

Twuffer
Twuffer (“Twitter with a buffer”) is a great app to use if you have a calendar of pre-written tweets that you want to push out certain days/times. I used this app during our holiday promotion and it was a lifesaver. When I took a week off for Christmas, my tweets appeared on Christmas Eve, Christmas day and New Year’s day — perfect opportunities for our followers to take a much-needed Twitter break. Continue reading »

Top Ten Tips for Keeping Clients Happy

Building solid, lasting relationships with clients is one of the most important aspects of Account Service. This being my first job out of grad school, I was anxious and excited to learn from HC&B’s relationship management experts. In the last year, I’ve learned several tips from my coworkers on just how to keep those oh-so-important clients oh-so-happy.

And why does it matter? Because a great agency/client relationship isn’t just about doing great work. It’s about doing great work together. The only way that can happen is when trust is earned over time — and that’s at the root of each of these tips:

10. Don’t make promises you can’t keep.
If you say that you can do something in a certain time-frame, make sure you do it. There’s nothing worse than missing a deadline. It’s much better to exceed expectations by giving yourself more time and delivering sooner than to disappoint by promising something unrealistic.

9. Communication is key.
When you foresee an obstacle ahead, the earlier you can inform your client and make an alternative plan, the better. If you run into problems, be up front about it and take responsibility. Continue reading »

Creating a Content Strategy Deliverable for Small and Medium Websites

Using Content Strategy to Improve the Copy Process
If high school debate taught me one thing, it’s to always start by defining terms. If you can get someone to agree with you on the basics, your job of convincing them of more complex ideas is a lot easier.

While web copy approval interactions should never feel like a debate, they can easily get contentious. Internal reviews, client approvals and revision rounds can be tricky if you don’t all start on a common ground.

By using content strategy to build a foundation for content development, you can improve many of these interactions, and make life much easier for you, your internal team and your client.

So how do you define terms for web copy? Create a client-deliverable content strategy document. Continue reading »

Development Options for Your iPad Presentations

When it comes to one-on-one detailing, the iPad has proven itself to be an amazing sales tool. Not only does the device itself have a slick viewing environment; it also offers your marketing team a range of flexible presentation options.

The Alcon OVD iPad site is a lite version of the regular website, designed specifically for video detailing in person.

Healthcare marketers are familiar with the rise and importance of available medical apps — official iTunes App Store releases — but there are other development options that might align better with your company’s needs. Here are six experiences for you to consider the next time someone in your company says “we need an app for that”:

Option 1: Lite Mobile Version of Your Site
Using the best assets and most popular functionality from your current site, build a smaller iPad‐friendly website with limited content. Turnaround is quick and the budgets are lower. A lite site is easy to deploy (no connection to third-party stores), though presenting will require internet access. Continue reading »

Using Scrum Stand-Up Principles to Improve Meetings

Status meetings are about as boring as meetings come. But we understand why they’re important: They ensure team awareness of project developments, deadlines and priorities. They help guarantee that milestones will be met.

And that’s what a Scrum “Stand-Up” meeting achieves. Stand-Ups are the fast, high-energy, daily status meetings of the Scrum methodology.

Understanding Scrum
Scrum is a software development project management methodology. It’s one of many branded methodologies called “iterative” or “agile.” Regardless of the terminology or which branded iterative model you look at, they all break projects into small, separate pieces. Continue reading »