Creative Capture

FLOURISH.
The creative department at SE2 is made up of a duo, but has recently flourished. With the recent (newborn) addition to Amy Guttmann’s family, SE2 has received a (not newborn) interim creative director for the time Amy spends being a brand new mom. We are excited for all of our new additions and know that our “extended duo” will continue to produce innovative, effective work to share with all of you.

FOCUS.
SE2 staff work day and night to focus on moving public opinion. On the creative side, we submerge ourselves in key messages in order to communicate to the masses, regardless of the medium (print, direct mail, television, radio, online, outdoor). From concept to production and placement, SE2 delivers a full range of advertising services to our clients.

SUCCESS.
We have succeeded in producing some of the best work to-date, for clients like The Mayor Project, The Colorado Trust, Hunger Free Colorado, CIVHC, and Think About It Colorado.

• The Mayor Project was a successful campaign that passed Initiative 300 in Colorado Springs this past November. Check out the work we produced – direct mail and television.
  
• For its 25th Anniversary, The Colorado Trust had SE2 produce six videos featuring grantees from around Colorado. The videos speak for themselves. See “Partnering to Strengthen Colorado’s Health Care Workforce”.
• Since websites are a must in this day and age, we create sites that matter by engaging the audience. Check out our clients Hunger Free Colorado (HFC), Center for Improving Value in Health Care (CIVHC) and Think About It Colorado (TAIC).

EXPRESS.
As many of you may know, SE2 will be doing pro-bono work for the Colorado “I Have a Dream”® Foundation throughout the year. This is a chance for us to express and grow our creative presence. Our holiday card has buzzed around Denver, containing a snapshot of what is yet to come. Check in throughout the year to see what we are up to!

And the winner is...

Jill Hamilton, with the caption “They’re, like, so immature.”

We’d also like to give a shout-out to two entries we received. They were both stand-out submissions, but unfortunately came in after the deadline.

The ever-hilarious Brian Kurz submitted, “While years later no one could quite remember who first made the suggestion, it was Penelope who set the wheels of world domination in motion.”

And Hilary Dunning, who, notably, is not related to any of the babies and does not work at SE2, submitted, “Why do I always have to be the designated driver??”

Hilarious submissions all around. Thank you for all of the entries, and enjoy your latte, Jill!

Caption, anyone?

They're, like, so immature.

While most of us are hard at work here at the office, a few of the littlest members of the SE2 family have been enjoying themselves far away from 770 Sherman Street.

These three aren’t verbal yet so it’s hard to know exactly what they’re thinking. But we’re guessing that a few of our readers might have some great ideas. And everyone knows that SE2 loves a good story.

So we’re rolling out our first “caption contest.” The best entry by 6pm today gets a free latte (or similar espresso-ish drink of your choice.) Send your submissions to Illana@PublicPersuasion.com. (While she may be especially loyal to one of those photo subjects, she promises to be completely impartial in her judgment – though all decisions are final!)

Why I Heart Email Marketing

Email marketing isn’t glamorous, it’s not the shiny new “it thing,” and it frankly isn’t very dynamic. To make an analogy, email marketing is like Barbra Streisand – still going strong and still kickin’ butt after all this time – not the Ke$ha.

But just because it’s been around a long time doesn’t mean it won't work. Its exactly opposite. It is still around because it does work.

Says who?
A recent Ad Effectiveness Survey commissioned by Forbes Media revealed that email and e-newsletter marketing are considered the second-most effective tool for generating conversions, just behind SEO.

It’s not a secret that email marketing works. Many industry professionals recognize the power of email marketing and still bank on it when it comes to driving online conversions. A December 2009 survey of email marketers by Silverpop found that "four out of 10 marketers reported that their email budgets in 2010 would increase, and nearly half (said their budgets would stay the same.”

Why focus my attention on email marketing?
The data makes a pretty persuasive argument for the power of email marketing. If that isn’t enough of an argument consider this.

What is the one thing that all of us Internet users have in common? Give up? The answer… an email address. Some of us might even have five or six. Not me of course. We may not all be on Twitter, or watch online video, or search, but we all have an email address that we check regularly. Don’t get me wrong, there is a place for each of these, but in terms of reaching the most people with the least amount of effort, email is the way to go.

It’s actually estimated that 85% of us have at least one email address (the other 15% is mostly people that don’t have regular Internet access). It’s a safe bet then that all of your stakeholders have email (unless you have a large Latino base, in which case you should look into SMS)… but I digress.

If you have a robust, highly segmented email database email marketing is one of the single best ways to reach your audience online. It allows you to target your database with contextual messaging that is more likely to cause them convert. It’s a lot of fun to A/B test messaging through email marketing. And, my favorite part, you empower your database to grow your list for you through social sharing.

Ok, now you have my attention. So, how do I grow my email database?
There are literally dozens of effective ways to grow your email list. Here are a few of my favorite:

• Make it easy for people visiting your website to sign-up. Have strong, benefits-focused call to actions on the most highly trafficked pages of your website. Tell people what benefit they get by joining. They know you get their email address. They want to know that they are going to get from you in return.
  
  
• Allow people to sign-up via a form. Don’t make people click to another site to submit their email address. You’re instantly going to lose tons of emails this way. There is no good excuse for not putting the sign-up form right on your website.
  
  
• Send a welcome email encouraging people to share your email with their friends. Many email service providers (e.g. Constant Contact, Mail Chimp) have added tools that allow their customers (you) to enable social sharing of emails by your subscribers. People on your list can forward the email to their friends, or even share it to their social media profiles. This is a great way to encourage your list to market your email program for you.
  
  
• Run email acquisition contests. In my previous life we ran a contest where we asked our email subscribers to invite their friends to join the email program. The more people that joined the list, the more chances they had to win a prize at the end. In total we added THOUSANDS of new email address. Sure, there are drawbacks to this approach but if you have an email address and a persuasive message, there’s a good chance you can hook ‘em. Heck, these email addresses are going to be a whole lot better than a purchased list (which you should never use!)
  
  
• Collect emails where the people are. If you are holding an event, collect email addresses. If people are willing to turn out for your event they are surely committed enough to share their email address with you. SMS (i.e. text messaging) is an easy and efficient way for people at your events to sign-up for your emails without actually having to be a computer to do it.
  

Now that I have a good list, what do I do with it?

Well, that’s for another day and another blog post.

So what are you waiting for? Start building your email list!

Questions/comments? Post 'em below.

...and CIVHC's website makes two!

This must be some kind of record for SE2... we launched two websites in one week! (The first website was covered in our previous post.)

We worked with our friends over at Data, Inc. to plan, design and build out CIVHC's (Center for Improving Value in Health Care) new website.

Our focus was to create a website with advanced features and functions that can grow and expand as their organizations does. We also focused on creating a website that is social media friendly.

Blog posts and articles can be easily shared by website viewers, and CIVHC's subject matter experts have a platform to share what they know on CIVHC's new Voices on Value Blog. Partner organizations can even grab CIVHC badges to post on their websites. Pretty cool stuff. (Want one for yourself? Grab one here)

Check out images of their new website below, or explore it for yourself here.

About CIVHC:

CIHVC is a public-private entity created to identify and advance initiatives across Colorado that enhance consumers' health care experiences, contain costs and improve the health of Coloradans by creating an efficient, high quality and transparent health care system.

SE2's newest work

SE2 is proud to announce our newest website launch for our client Hunger Free Colorado.

From inception to completion, we put this website up in less than one week. It goes to show that when you put a bunch of passionate, hard working people in a room, pretty awesome things can get done in a very short amount of time.

We also launched their brand new Facebook Fan page and their Twitter feed. Friend 'em or follow 'em, won't you?

Last, and certainly not least, we secured a week long special feature with Channel 7 news called, "Staying Healthy: Making Colorado Hunger Free." Those stories will be airing all week long, Monday - Friday at 5:50am, 6:45am and 4:45pm.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

About Hunger Free Colorado:

Hunger Free Colorado (HFC) is the only statewide anti-hunger advocacy organization in Colorado. Created in 2009, HFC works with a wide range of stakeholders including food banks, anti-hunger and health advocacy organizations, state and local government officials and Colorado policymakers to address problems in the publicly funded food delivery system, promote initiatives aimed at helping children and families in need, and increase understanding of the impact of hunger on Colorado.