Fundraising letter challenge: limited funds, running out of stock, time, and energy
Scott Newman came to Moxie Media seeking help with a daunting task he and his wife, Ginny, were undertaking for his District 18 Senate fundraising campaign. They were manually printing and addressing a letter that included a remittance form insert to their strong GOP address list. They would process about 60-80 per day, completed over 600, and had about 7000 more to go! Needless to say, they were overwhelmed and questioning if this was a good use of their limited time. By this time, Scott was getting down on supply of his preprinted letterhead, remittance envelopes, and mailing envelopes. Time was running out because Scott needed all the remaining 7000 letters sent within 2 weeks. Scott also had to guard the limited funds he had to work with for this and other election campaigns. Scott knew he needed help but wasn’t sure what could be done to work through these issues.
The Creative and Practical Solution
Our team came up with the proposal to take Scotts existing 3-piece mailer and combine it all into a single 2-color 8.5” X 14” self-mailing folded layout. This approach cut the cost down considerably. We re-purposed Scott’s letter content so the key points caught the reader’s attention. We pulled the right resources together to confidently get the job done. We worked with Ginny to produce an address list for the remaining targeted addressees and that was formatted suitable for the mail house’s requirements. The job was completed within 2 weeks of Scott coming to our office and we stayed within Scott’s limited budget constraints!
Below is a blog post by Paul Wilson Jr., author of the book Dream B.I.G.
I have chosen to interject my thoughts into this post about a person who has left indelible fingerprints on my life and the rest of the moxie media staff. Susan Sanders has been an account manager for moxie media for the last year and a half. She has nurtured relationships with customers and her peers and touched our lives in so many positive ways. She and her husband Rob are following the path that has been set before them and will be moving to St. Paul. Today is her last day in the office. She has moved accounts over to a very capable person, LuAnn Drazkowski who recently joined our staff. I wanted to write something about her and share my thoughts with you about what she has left behind for moxie and brings forward to her new adventure. Perhaps our paths will cross again and she will be working for moxie – in St. Paul. So read on…..
Fingerprints are a nearly invisible impression that says, “I was here.” The person is gone (but not too far – St. Paul is only and hour away), but they have left traces of themselves behind.
Figuratively speaking, fingerprints also symbolize your legacy – evidence that represents what you did and the impact you had while you were at someplace. This could include a company - moxie media, relationship - moxie staff, church - faith lutheran, community - hutchinson, or life in general.
So Susan, where have you left your fingerprints? What evidence did you leave behind to show that you were guilty of doing something great?
LOTS, fingerprints of compassion, fun, hard work, timeliness, detail oriented, creativity, professionalism, faith, passion, family.
Can a case be built to show that her life positively impacted others? ABSOLUTELY!
As you think about her “legacy-in-process”, here are some questions to ask about the evidence of Susan’s impact:
Will moxie media be better after Susan leaves than before she arrived?
Yes, besides the fact that she added 30+ accounts to the moxie account list, she has become a good friend to all of us.
Will Susan leave her current relationships better than when she arrived?
Yes, Susan has nurtured customers relationships by listening and interpreting their needs to the moxie staff enabling them to do their job better and help provide marketing solutions for her customers.
How is she developing the people around her now to carry forth her vision?
Meticulously, Susan went through every customer file and explained to LuAnn who they were as people and as customers. She showed LuAnn the jobs she had done for them in the past and what the possibilites for the future held for each one. Then she took LuAnn to meet them in person. She wanted to make sure they were well taken care of.
Whom has she led in the past that is now leading well?
I am positive as Susan’s successor, that LuAnn has the knowledge base about her customers to continue the excellent job Susan has done her customers.
How has she equipped the people around her for their future success?
Susan has been able to connect with people and see their talents and direct them in ways that they can most benefit from those talents. While doing so, she has provided moxie customers with the expertise and talent needed to accomplish their marketing goals.
What is she building that people will be benefitting from 10 or 20 years from now?
Susan will continue to look beyond …look outside the box, and provide creative and practical ideas to use in everyday life and in her business aspirations. It’s all about relationships.
Everyday is an opportunity to build evidence that your life matters because of your positive influence and impact. Don’t miss your opportunity to be found guilty of doing something great in someone else’s life!
Susan – you are guilty as charged! You have learned more and shared so much in the last year and half that we will be forever touched by your compassion for people and outstanding work ethic. This is your next step in walking the path laid before you, and it will have many twists and turns, ups and downs, and even some nice times to just coast. I hope that moxie has left some indelible finger prints in your life that will help you navigate your path. And perhaps that path will lead back here.
Ellen Dickie, Moxie Media, Vice President
Each week we will be offering discounts for printing projects you may have. These discounts apply to the printing portion of the project. Any design or artwork charges will be additional.
Create your own business cards, flyers, brochures, banners and more. Convert to high resolution pdf for printing and email to us. We will check your file to make sure it will process correctly for printing and then off it goes into production. If you need help in designing or coming up with an idea, just let us know and we can walk you through the process.
Alphabet soup is what you might think once you begin discussing artwork creation and transfer with clients and decorators. Here’s a handy cheat sheet to help clarify the jumble.
- DPI (dots per inch) is the unit of measurement for resolution, communicating the density of dots in a print image or on a computer screen. It is helpful to remember that as the dpi doubles, the number of dots within a square inch quadruples. Therefore an image that’s 300 dpi will have 90,000 dots per square inch. Remember, the higher the dpi, the better the resolution of your image.
- CMYK color: This is the color method based upon pigments. “CMYK” stands for cyan, magenta, yellow and black. Using these four colors, most other colors can be achieved.
- PMS (Pantone Matching System): This is a printing color method based on a list of specially mixed colors by Pantone Corp. These colors are considered to be “pure” and “true” based on their exacting specifications.
- BMP (bitmap) is a map of dots or pixels, which typically comes in file formats such as .gif, .tif, .jpg or .bmp. Each dot can specify a color. The larger the resolution the better, but these files generally aren’t the best choice for imprint artwork.
- GIF (graphics interchange format) is often the format used for the photos you see on the Internet, because the files are small and download quickly.
- JPG or JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) is a standard compression format for high-resolution color images. They too are created by pixels. The higher the dpi, the better the image of the jpeg.
- TIFF (tagged image file format) is a file format for exchanging bitmapped images.
- EPS (encapsulated postscript) is a type of graphics file written in postscript language.
- PDF (Adobe portable document format) offers an easy way to share files and to illustrate what you want your artwork to look like. However, these files aren’t always the best from which to have your garment imprinted.
If you need assistance in decipher the “graphic file” language, we would be glad to interpret. Pop us an email or we can stop by and help you.
This is our first post of a special tv show showing promotional products and trends in the industry.
Enjoy! Call or email and let us know if you find something you like.
Presented by the Hutchinson Area Chamber of Commerce, CVB
Saturday May 8, 2010 ~ 9:00am – 4:00pm
McLeod County Fairgrounds, Hutchinson, MN
No Fee – Open to the public
We are busy, busy getting things ready for our part in the Bring It Home Family Fun & Business Expo. We have lots of fun things planned.
Coloring Contest
Kids of all ages can participate and show their creativity with our dot-to-dot coloring contest sheet. We will be awarding kid’s meals and game tokens for Coney Island Eatery to the top 3 winners and will be posting the entries on our facebook fan page/Moxie Media of the contestant’s artwork. Who knows which one will be a future graphic designer.
Door Prize Drawing
Starting a new business? have a home business? or need a face lift for your existing business brand? Our Door Prize drawing will be a Design & Print package. The winner will receive a logo design, 250 – business cards and 250 of the following choices: a brochure, postcard or flyer to promote their business. Details coming soon.
Free Seminar
Integrated Marketing is our hot buzz word for businesses. Frequently we are asked about social media marketing, direct mail marketing, ad campaigns, give aways (aka promotional items), clothing, trade show marketing and a number of other media types included in marketing – how can they all work together? This seminar will help you connect the dots to make the perfect marketing campaign for your business. Our seminar will be from 9:00 to 9:45, Saturday May 8th at the Bring It Home Family Fun & Business Expo.
Meet our staff
Our staff will be there to meet you and answer our most frequently asked question.
FAQ – what do you guys do? Stop by and see all the things we do. You will be amazed and will walk away saying “I didn’t know they could do that”
FAQ – are you guys local? Absolutely. Our offices are located on the first floor of the Pride Solutions building in the Hutchinson Industrial Park -120 Eastgate Drive SE. by the Hutchinson Utilities building and Impressions printing company.
A great title slide can help you get more views and increase the number of clicks to your presentation. Here are some tips for a great first slide.
1. Keep It Simple. The title slide should introduce the presentation clearly and quickly. It should be easy on the eyes, it’ll get left up on the screen for a while
2. Bigger is Better. Big fonts, big simple pictures. On SlideShare your first slide also doubles as a thumbnail. Make sure everything is big enough to be readable even at thumbnail size.
3. Make a Headline. Your title should be exciting and read like a headline or book title. Enticing trumps informative. Keywords are nice, but don’t make it read like a PhD thesis. (Not that there’s anything wrong with PhD’s)
Promotional items are just one way to reach your customers. Handing out a trinket, a pen, a mug, needs to serve a specific purpose. How do you choose?
There are many factors in choosing but the following are some we ask as we walk our customers through the process.
What is the marketing goal you are trying to achieve when you hand out your item?
We are a new retail company in town and need to our name out.
We want to say thank you to our employees for all their hard work this year.
We want people to remember where they get their service done.
How many will you need? And when do you need it?
This is probably one of the most important questions as it will weed out alot of options. It will pay to preplan.
What is the price range you need to stay within?
Is the product available in the color scheme with in your brand. Do the colors match or coordinate with your logo?
Will the recipient keep it visible so others can see it? Or will they show it to others because of it’s meaning and purpose?
How do you plan to distribute the items?
Will they be mailed, personally handed out, left on a table at a meeting?
If you need some ideas, give us a call. We would be glad to walk you through the process?
I was reminded today how drastically the printing industry has changed since I began my career. We were actually looking through a binder (aka notebook) that held pictures and negatives for a customer of mine. That in itself was amazing as negatives for photos is a thing of the past. Now with digital photography, everyone can take photos to use online, in print and publishing. For those of you who are ancient in the field, you will remember how we used to cut rubylith over photos to knock out the background of the photo for printing. Remember how many layers of film and acetate there was to making one plate for a 4 color process printing job? The number of man hours was phenomenal to create a catalog. It would take an entire month for 5-6 people to put together a magazine. Now with a few clicks or strokes on a keyboard, we can recreate this process on our computers using the correct software. The people who used to do this were called lithographers professionally. We called them “Strippers” as they would strip the film together and that was the source of many jokes. As a sales rep that worked with the client on their print job I wanted to learn as much as I could about the process. I would ask questions, what was a “shrink and spread,” creating a trap in the film, what was a fake duotone, mezzotint screen, dots per inch. Understanding the methodology made me a better sales person. It helps me to understand what the computer does automatically. Wow – has it changed. Now I proof through online proofing systems, checking color, registration, pagination, and resolution. Some people think that digital media and social media will take over and printing will be a thing of the past. I am not so sure. One thing I know for sure, the process will change and Moxie Media will change with it. I am excited for the future and learning new ways of doing things. Some day we will look back again and say, “Wow, things have really changed!
What are some of the ways that marketing has changed the most for you?
