August Give Back(pack)

This month’s giving project was not only fun but rewarding because we were able to work with all of the amazing colleagues in our shared office space. If you’ve never been to the Remember Marketing offices, you may not know that we share space with some impressive businesses: BBI Accounting, Prospera Financial Group and Miracle IP. We like to call it the Business 101 Suite, because you can find all the professionals you need to start and grow your own business right here in our office (which happens to be in Suite 101).

Our office mates all agreed to participate in the giving project this month, Operation Backpack, which is coordinated through Volunteers of America. Operation Backpack provides backpacks and school supplies for homeless and at-risk students in central Ohio and beyond.

We couldn’t have put together such impressive backpacks without the help of our office family! We worked together to find the best deals to purchase and fill 24 backpacks full of school supplies and prepare them for the children that will ultimately receive them. What a great team effort, and we hope to expand it next year by inviting more people to participate.

Want to join us in supporting this year? Backpacks are still being accepted through Aug. 8. Here’s how you can help provide backpacks or donate to the cause.

Lesson from this project: We make more significant positive changes when we work together!

Shannon P.R.

Stand Up for Something

Here's a quick post to share our July giveback spotlight. We had a great time at the "Stand Up for Downs" fundraiser, a night of stand-up comedy held at the Ivory Room in downtown Columbus with the mission to improve the lives of those with Down syndrome. 

If you don't know someone with Down syndrome that would be surprising, as it is the most common genetic condition affecting one in every 691 people. Here are a few facts about Down syndrome.

Thank you to our good friend Ann Oliver for convincing us to spend a night in support of this worthy cause!

How to verify your social media presence, increase SEO

If you manage a social media presence for your business or personal brand, make sure your profiles are verified. Verifying your profile/page can potentially give it a better ranking in search results, therefore attracting more visitors. A verified page also helps ensure your visitors that they have located the accurate social media profile for your business.

Here are the simple steps to verify your Facebook and Twitter pages. 

Facebook page verification
Click settings at the top of the page you manage and navigate to page verification, which should be the third option. The quickest way to verify your Facebook page is to use your business phone number. Once you enter your phone number, Facebook will call you with a verification code. Your page will be verified after successfully entering the code.

Here are step-by-step Facebook page verification instructions. 

Twitter page verification
Twitter verification, which was once reserved for high-profile accounts, is now open to most Twitter business accounts. As of July 2016, you can request to be considered for verification. There are a few items you must have before requesting verification, including a bio, profile photo, header photo, website, verified phone number and email address.

Here are detailed instructions for Twitter verification. 

Best of luck getting your Facebook and Twitter business pages verified. It's an important step in making it easier for your current and potential customers to find you! 

Six guidelines for building the perfect business partnership

In a perfect world, partnerships would rule. Why? Because they are the most cost-effective community building model for success. When a business contacts us for marketing advice, strategic partnerships always make our list of recommendations. When you build a mutually beneficial relationship, you can pool your resources and talents to turn something good into great, and build meaningful relationships along the way.

Earlier this year Remember Marketing helped coordinate a statewide effort to support the future of Ohio’s food and farms. The effort was done in partnership with four strong partners: Ohio Farm Bureau Foundation, Ohio 4-H Foundation, Ohio FFA Foundation and Bob Evans. The results drove significant traffic to Bob Evans over a two-day period and raised more than $13,000 for the organizations it supported.

Partnerships can be a lot of work, but they are most often rewarding. Here are a few tips to consider when building the perfect partnership.

Align your partnership mission and partner with people you enjoy working with. 
Above enjoying working with your selected partners and making sure you’re both working towards the same goal, it helps to find partners that can introduce you to a new market that you aren’t currently serving. With the right partner this means cross-promoting in different business sectors that would ultimately benefit from your product or service, therefore benefiting all partners.

Discuss costs and distribution of resources upfront. 
The partnership will flow from the beginning if all the details are agreed upon from the start of the relationship. It’s also helpful to have one lead coordinator for the partnership project to keep everyone on track.

Set goals for success.
“What doesn’t get measured doesn’t get managed.” This is one of our favorite mantras.  Set goals in the very beginning stages of the partnership that you can work towards and measure once your partnership takes off.

Use collaboration tools. 
There are several document sharing tools out there (essential for partnerships) that make it easy to share information. Google Docs is one of our favorite free resources because of its ease of use but there are several others, such as Dropbox, Slack and Trello. Collaboration tools are a must for making your teamwork effective.

Track your efforts. 
Remember what we said about measuring results? Use the same collaboration tools to track efforts of partnership success, such as news mentions and other important outcomes specific to your partnership. This will help everyone involved feel good about your partnership efforts, plus gain support for future projects.

Envision a long-term relationship.
What good is going to all the effort of setting up a partnership if you don’t see a long-term future as partners? Partnerships, as with any relationship, are a lot of work. However, the work is worth it when you find the right fit and commit to a long-term partnership. 

We wish you the best of luck in making your next partnership perfect!

Shannon P. R.

Who is protecting the future of Ohio’s food and farms?

Hello Friends! It's been a busy couple of months but we didn't want to leave you in the dark about our YOG spotlight for May and June. For the past two months we've been focusing efforts on a project and sponsorship to support the future of Ohio's food and farms through Ohio Farm Bureau. 

First up was dining to make a difference in May! On May 16 and 17, Bob Evans donated 15 percent of sales from patrons presenting a fundraiser flyer to the Ohio Farm Bureau Foundation, Ohio FFA Foundation and Ohio 4-H Foundation. More than $13,000 was raised to support the great work of these organizations through the fundraiser.

We contributed by celebrating with a catered lunch at our office to give thanks to the great group of Farm Bureau folks who worked with us to make the project a huge success. We ate four meals at Bob Evans with friends and family during the fundraiser! Search for #BE4AG (Bob Evans for Agriculture) on social media to see the great results of participation throughout the state.

Second up was sponsoring the Ohio Farm Bureau’s Foundation Golf Invitational June 26.

The work of the Ohio Farm Bureau Foundation is vital in helping build the next generation of farmers, protecting the environment, boosting Ohio’s economy and building stronger local communities. Agriculture really does impact our daily lives and it’s important to know how our food is produced and be engaged in supporting a strong future for the farmers who ultimately feed us. 

Did you know Ohio Farm Bureau is an organization for all Ohioans, not just farmers? If you’d like to help support the future of Ohio's food and farms and learn more about the work of Ohio Farm Bureau, you can become an Our Ohio Supporter.

Remember, we are nothing without the food we eat.

Shannon P.R.

8 ways to make your customers feel like they belong

Every business should have a plan to interact with customers on an ongoing basis, which goes beyond simple communications. How do you hold yourself accountable for the customer relationships you create and hopefully nourish through the years? 

Here are Remember Marketing's principles for staying on track to make your customers feel important. (You'll notice they spell out a familiar word.) 

Register every customer or potential customer in a way unique to your business.
Email, call, text or visit within one week of first engagement.
Make customer service a number one priority.
Engage on a regular basis.
Make a vow to respond in 24 business hours.
Be available to communicate in whichever way your customer wants. (You need to find out.)
Evoke a positive memory.
Remember, we all want to belong.

We'll share more details on each of these points in later posts. Stay tuned!

Shannon P. R.

Couponing for Good

This month Remember Marketing helped our client Credit Union of Ohio execute a rewarding project, a Couponing for Good Challenge.  The project was a win-win for our client, the challenge participants and the Mid-Ohio Foodbank. 

Credit Union of Ohio held a couponing workshop to teach couponing skills and then gave attendees the option to participate in a 30-day couponing challenge. Each of the 16 challenge participants received a $25 gift card to practice their newly learned couponing skills, with the caveat that anything purchased with the gift card would be donated to the Mid-Ohio Foodbank.

All the challenge participants gathered this weekend to drop off items and it was truly awesome to hear about the amount of fun and learning had by all throughout the challenge. Hundreds of most-needed food and household items were purchased to donate!

I personally attended the workshop and decided to participate in the challenge on Remember Marketing's tab. All those little coupon packets I receive weekly in the mail that I typically throw away, well, I clipped out the coupons. My experience going to the store with the very intent to save on specific items and stay within a budget was both eye-opening and fun. I truly could not believe what a little time and effort could help me buy and save. I purchased everything below for just $36 and saved $16.50 with all those coupons I typically trash! What?!? Yes, I did go a little over budget but almost all items purchased were on the most-needed list provided by the foodbank, so I felt the need to splurge a bit.

This is going down as our April YOG project. I highly recommend trying it with your family, friends or co-workers because you will be amazed by what you can save with a little planning. Also, now is a great time of year to help fill the shelves at your local food pantry.

P.S. If you're interested in learning more about couponing you can sign up to be notified of Credit Union of Ohio's next coupon workshop and challenge opportunity.

Remember, Couponing for Good is a Good Thing!

Shannon P.R.

Monday Motivation

Sometimes you need to look at your situation from a different viewpoint to see how far you’ve come. 

Quick story, last month I kayaked through incredibly choppy ocean waters to that tiny little island pictured below, off the coast of Puerto Rico. Once I made it to the island I felt safe, but getting there was terrifying! It wasn’t until I climbed to the top of this mountain that I truly realized what a journey I had made and was grateful to see my journey from a different perspective. 

On top of Palomino Island looking towards Palominito Island

Now back to you. Yes, you! Whether you have been at the same job for years or are just starting a new career path, you’re a business owner, a parent, a student or a teacher—wherever you are in life, take a moment right now and look back at how far you’ve come. 

Let me help you appreciate that from a different perspective. Chances are you’ve accomplished things you never imagined doing or maybe you’re right where you planned to be. Either way, it took a lot of work getting there, right?

Give yourself credit for what you've achieved. We get so caught up in our day-to-day activities, we forget to take time out to appreciate how far we’ve come. So here’s your moment. Enjoy it! And now, make this Monday the best one you’ve ever had. 

Shannon P.R.

Columbus just got funnier!

Our March Year of Giving spotlight goes out to CBus Improv Theatre, an improvisational theatre making its way to Columbus this fall. The theatre will host shows 4-5 nights weekly, including sketch shows and stand-up events, and it will also be home to a training center offering a variety of improv classes.

This cause is somewhat personal because I spent quite a bit of time on stage during my childhood and improvisation was one of my favorite skills to practice. In fact, I would argue it’s a skill that's helped me relate to people my entire life. Improv is a great way to get creativity flowing in your mind and truly connect with others; every artist must improvise at some point!

The story of CBus Improv Theatre’s founders Rance Rizzutto and Tara DeFrancisco (a Cbus native) is truly magical, and I couldn't be more proud to support their vision to bring this important form of creativity, laughter and community building to the heart of Columbus. I challenge you to support the theatre too, because it still needs help to reach its funding goal.

Remember, supporting new business ventures in Columbus makes our city better and we're still looking for worthy causes to support this year. If you have any causes that are dear to you or would like to join Remember Marketing in a year of giving, please leave a comment below or send an email to info@remembermkt.com.

Let's make positive changes together.

-Shannon P.R.

GoFundMe Campaign for CBus Improv

https://www.gofundme.com/x2mn27d2

Meet the woman who is bringing innovation to Columbus

In 1981 Nancy Kramer founded Resource, a digital marketing agency, and secured Apple as her first client. Between then and now, she has grown the agency into Resource/Ammirati, an IBM company, which employs hundreds of associates in Columbus, Chicago and New York. Earlier this year, her agency was acquired by IBM to become part of IBM iX, the world's largest digital-agency network.

Kramer is one of the most influential women in advertising and is creating serious opportunities for new jobs and innovation in central Ohio. She’s a woman who brings as much to the table with her passion for innovation as she does with her genuine care for making people feel like they belong. 

I had the chance to hear her speak at the AAF Columbus March luncheon and asked her what is the best advice she could give the Nancy Kramer from 1981, regarding everything she's been through. Her advice: always follow your gut.

An impressive role model for any business owner, here are some other lessons learned.

Nancy Kramer speaking to a captivated audience at the March AAF Columbus luncheon.

1. Thanks to her, Columbus is literally on the map! Kramer flashed up a map of all the IBM ix locations around the world during her presentation. It was thrilling to see Columbus listed among other larger-city locations such as Boston, Chicago, New York, Toronto, London, Paris and Tokyo. Columbus will continue to be a hotbed for marketing innovation. (Remember, you heard it here first!)

2. IBM is a pretty cool company, and on the forefront of innovation in the digital world. According to Bloomberg, IBM received over 7,000 U.S. patents last year. That averages to about 20 patents per day; it's also the highest number of patents received by any company for the 23rd consecutive year! And guess what, now IBM has a spot to innovate right here in Columbus, Ohio.

3. Don't judge a book by its cover.  Kramer said she never would have imagined that Resource/Ammirati and IBM were a good match until after she left that first meeting, but every day she feels better about the decision. Imagine if she wouldn’t have taken the initial meeting based on her preconceived ideas? It’s a great lesson for all of us.

You truly could have heard a pin drop during Kramer’s presentation because her genuine demeanor is so captivating. I would say lesson four is, no matter where you are in life, be yourself and people will like you better for it.

Shannon P.R.