Happy Thanksgiving! The holidays are officially upon us. And as the Black Friday Sales start (on Thursday, no less) it is extremely easy to get sucked into the stress of the holiday season. We can get too focused on the gifts and less on the meaning. We get focused on the tasks on the to-do list and less on the point of the exercise. I know I am guilty of it. So on this day of Thanksgiving, I wanted to take just a moment to outline a few of the things I am thankful for here at Hasseman Marketing.
The Team
I really am excited and thankful for the team I get to work with every day. From different backgrounds and different parts of the country, the inside employees and the outside sales team are what make us go. They are who “Deliver Marketing Joy.” Thanks to the Hasseman Marketing Team!
Our Customers
Nothing happens until there is a sale. That is true of any business, and certainly ours. We so appreciate the faith and trust our customers place in us every day. Thanks to each and every one of you!
Our Communities
Our Corporate headquarters is in Coshocton, Ohio and we love that area. We #ChooseCoshocton. We are proud of it. We want to have an impact. But with the nature of our business, we have team members in other communities too. Yes, we have people in Ohio. But we also represent communities in Virginia, North Carolina, and California as well. We are thankful for the opportunity to make a difference in each.
Our Suppliers and Partners
As with most any business, we are not in it alone. We have a host of fantastic suppliers and partners that help us do what we do. These suppliers are manufacturers, printers, designers and software developers…and more. We are thankful for the opportunity to work with each. So thank you! If you are reading this, you are likely in one of these camps.
All of us at Hasseman Marketing would like to take this chance to give Thanksgiving…for you!
Please allow me a “proud dad” post here. But I think you might get some value out of it as well.
My oldest daughter Skylar Hasseman is an aspiring dancer. She just finished her Freshman year at Kent State University (and did very well) but it struggling with the idea of whether to return. Like many young people (and not so young people) she is trying to decide which is the best path for her to reach her dreams and goals. So in working to build her own personal brand, she has decided to create dance videos that showcase her dancing and her choreography skills. (You can subscribe to the channel here).
Her first video went up last night and (again proud dad here) I think it looks great. You can check it out here.
But what does this all mean to you? Great question. I think she is battling with what many of us work on. How do we work toward our goals? How do we stand out in a loud world? What if no one likes what we are doing? You understand. If you are like me, you have heard those voices in your head.
So here are 3 Lessons you can learn from my daughter and her video.
1. She Chose Herself: Dance is something where you can wait your whole life waiting for someone to “choose” you. You go to auditions. You are judged at competitions. You wait to get chosen. She decided to take a different (or maybe just an additional) path. She created an opportunity to showcase her skills on her own.
2. She Took Action: How many times have you said, “I have an idea…” only to let it go because it might be too hard? It’s those ideas that you need to take action on if you want to stand out.
3. She “Shipped:” The project is never done until it’s out there. She could have waited to get one more shot. She could have continued to work and edit and wait until it was perfect. Instead, she pushed it out into the world. I am proud of that. This first project can be deemed a success. That’s great stuff. Now, if she wants to really take this path, she needs to create more and more consistent content to build her brand. Whether or not she does that is up to her. But what’s cool, is that she knows that now.
Social media can really be a wonderful thing. We get the opportunity to connect with people from around the globe and reconnect with people from our past. We get to share and communicate, and it gives each and every one of us a voice. But we all know that there are some things about social media that are not as good. People have a tendency to get themselves in trouble by making some pretty simple mistakes. So here are 7 things that you (or the people your organization) should STOP doing right away.
Stop Complaining About Work or Co-Workers: If you are complaining about your co-workers or your job, and you think they can’t see it, you are wrong. They will find out. It’s unprofessional. And if you don’t care that you lose your job, just keep in mind that your next employer will be checking social media on you too.
Stop Passive Aggressive Complaints: This is when someone is obviously complaining about something that happened but does not want to address it in person. “Some people should just stop…” or posts of the like. If you have a problem with someone, be a grown up and talk to them about it.
Stop Claiming Free Speech: The First Amendment was created so that we could speak out without fear of being imprisoned by the government…not for being a jerk on Facebook. You do have freedom of speech, but you don’t have freedom of consequences. Stop acting like you do.
Stop Looking for a Reason to be Mad: It seems like some people wake up each day searching for a reason to be outraged. If you look for reasons to be angry all the time, you will find them (this post for example). Stop seeking out reasons to be mad and you might actually get happier.
Stop Comparing Your Life to Others: The fact is, most people (myself included) sometimes put up our “highlight reel” on social media. We post the pictures that look great. We show our vacations, not the times we are crying in the corner. Just be better than you were yesterday…stop worrying if Frank is on vacation again.
Stop Saying “Woe is me:” We all have challenges, and social media can be a place to vent…sometimes. But if you are constantly complaining about your life, then stop it. Take that time and energy and go out and change it.
Stop Forgetting Social is Public: I am always a little amused when people are surprised that what they put on social gets seen by people. It’s a public forum. So when you post things, just understand that your co-workers, your boss, your customers and even your future employer can and will see it.
These are just seven things to stop, but it’s a good start. Let me know if we have forgotten any that we need to add to the list. Again, social media can be great. But be smart…and it can be even better.
In nearly every sales force you have three kinds of team members. You have your Rock Stars, the average performers, and the Laggers. And your success as a business is dependent upon working with (or not working with) the right groups with the right amount of time to grow your sales.
1. Rock Stars: These are the folks that are self-starters. They are driven. This group takes very little of your time to motivate and (most of the time) they are actually pretty low maintenance. There is not a need or want of any hand-holding (for the most part) because they don’t have time for that. They are working to get the next sale.
Sometimes they are so easy to deal with you might ignore them. Don’t.
2. Laggers: As one sales manager once told me, “You can’t push a rope.” Many organizations make the mistake of spending a lot of time with the Laggers. They are often very nice guys and gals (that’s why they were hired). And the tendency is, we think that if we “coach them up” they can turn into Rock Stars. Most of the time, this is fantasy. Raise your hand if this has happened to you…everyone!
3. Average Performers: The fact is, most of your sales team falls into this category. These are good sales members that have moments of “rock star status.” They just don’t perform at this level consistently. They very well could be “rock stars” but they are not…yet. One of the jobs of an entrepreneur, sales manager, or sales guru, is to raise the level of these team members.
But how do you thank and appreciate the Rock Stars and incentivize the rest? That is, literally, the million-dollar question. Let’s take a look at a few options…
1. Status Award: When it comes to affecting sales members’ behavior, a great option is to create Status awards they “wear.” This allows them to be reminded of their accomplishment nearly every day. It also shows the Average Performers who to model their behavior after. When thinking of a status award, think of the Green Jacket that is given to the winner of the Masters. What are some other ideas for status awards? Think of doing a cool custom watch. The average person looks at their watch more than 10 times a day. Make it a fashion statement and you have something they are proud to wear. Not a fan of a watch? No problem. What about a custom ring or a special shirt. You get the idea.
Make it cool and it will get the attention you desire.
2. Fun Award: Sometimes you can really have fun with the celebration! If you create a contest or incentive around lifestyle and the fun that success can bring, you might create awards that celebrate that. What do I mean, think about toting around a very nice Coleman cooler to every event this summer with an award message. What a great way to remind your team of their success (and get people to ask about it!).
3. Public Awards: Another way to make sure your sales team knows how they are doing is to create an award program that is a very public display of accomplishment. Read more on how to really do this right here. But when you create a public display, you can really give your sales team a way to showcase their own accomplishments to everyone that walks in their office! The other cool effect of these awards is that it tells all future customers that they are dealing with a Rock Star…and we all want that. If you want to dig deeper on learning how to create a program to help grow sales, just contact us here and we will reach out to you. In addition, you can shop online for other ideas here.
When it comes to any promotional premium, there are several factors that will make your promotion a sure-fire hit.
First, the very best promotional products are functional. The best products are the ones that hold the advertising message and are used again and again. Exposure right?
Another factor we like to talk about at Hasseman Marketing is a high “perceived value.” You would love for your clients or your customers to think you are giving them something of value, maybe even something they think you spent more on it than you did!
Finally, if you can add a sprinkle of “wow” to the customers, you know you really have something! If you can create something “remarkable” you know you have a hit. We have always said that umbrellas make for great Promotional Premiums because of two of these factors. They are very functional and they have a high perceived value. The fact is, everyone needs an umbrella, but no one wants to buy one. But now we can add the “wow” on the umbrella as well!
When the customer gets an umbrella, they get a hang tag telling them to download a free app. When they do this, they will get an alert when there is a 60% chance of rain, telling them to remember to take their “XYZ Brand Umbrella.” This is a really cool combination of the Promotional Premium with Technology! But are the umbrellas any good? They are. Here are just a few of the umbrellas that come with the Rain Alertz app (for no extra charge).
The Challenger II: This 62″ umbrella has the strongest patented frame in the world. Tested in a wind tunnel at Texas A & M (really), this umbrella outlasted the competition. This umbrella will last and last. Check out the details here.
BT46 Inverted: This style of inverted umbrella is taking the umbrella industry by storm (get it?). The Phonebrella is powered with Bluetooth technology and contains a speaker and microphone in the handle connected to your phone. How cool is that? You can answer calls, play music and provide directions without getting your phone wet. Learn more about this cool umbrella here.
Promo2: And of course sometimes you just need to hit a budget point. This 44″ auto-open umbrella is perfect for this occasion. But don’t worry, this is still a nice quality piece. You can learn more here!
Graphic design is about the eye and the mind. It’s about finding a new and creative way to solve an old problem. A trained designer will understand how to answer these questions and solve these problems in the best way possible.
But sometimes, a quick job or budget constraints mean that you may have to create the artwork yourself. In this case, there are also plenty of measurable skills that almost anyone can use to improve how the final product of their design will come out.
Print is a physical medium, so there are many practical problems that need to be considered when making your artwork. Today, we’re going to cover three things to consider due to the process of cutting, or trimming, the paper. In general, any print job is run on a sheet of paper larger than the final size. For example, if you are making a flyer that is 8 1/2″ x 11″, or the size of a sheet of copier paper, it will most likely be printed on a sheet of paper that is 9 1/2″ x 12″, give or take, and then trimmed down the final size afterward. This physical process gives some speed bumps to consider when creating artwork.
Margins
An easy way to ruin your final job is to put your content, like text or important images, close to the edge of the sheet. When setting up a page, it’s easy to look at your white space and think you can fill all of it with your artwork. This isn’t the case. There needs to be a margin on the sides, top, and bottom to avoid anything important being cut off. If your headlines or text get too close to the edges, they run the risk of being trimmed off by accident. In this case, the printer is not to blame for it, and you are left with a job that is basically unusable. A safe distance to put anything important on your page is at least 1/4 inch from the edge of the sheet. This will give the printer enough room to work with the wiggle in the sheets as they trim them down, without worrying too much about cutting anything off.
Bleeds
In print work, and color or background that is supposed to run to the edge of the page without white showing is called a “bleed”. In order to correctly get this effect, the image needs to “bleed” over the edge. This means that when the art is printed on the larger sheet, the background will be a little bigger than the trimmed size. This may sound like opposite advice from the margin section, but the difference is that the background shouldn’t have anything important, like pertinent information or images, it should be a simple color or an image that isn’t of absolute necessity.
Alignment
Another aspect to easily overlook is the alignment of the artwork. Are all the elements centered on the page, or are they a little farther left or right? This can wreak havoc on your design. Without properly centered artwork, the printer will cut it as sent, which will make your page look lopsided. Sometimes, printers will try to correct it for you and center the page, but this can lead to problems with bleed, or even frustration from the printer from dealing with troublesome artwork.
Simply following little guidelines like this will instantly make whatever you create begin to look more professional. But remember, whenever possible, you should hire a professional to make the most out of your project and show your company in the best light. When the need arises, remember we at Hasseman Marketing offer full-service design, start to finish. Give us an idea, and we will take it to new heights.
