I spent most of my time at Prime helping to update and develop new organizational strategies for the company. From filing ad agreements, to updating price-list verbiage, to emailing clients their prospective ads, I’ve done it all. While this work may not be alluring to most, I’ve come to appreciate its value. Without such efforts to organize, a system falls behind and important information gets lost in the cracks. Only by getting organized and setting a standard to uphold can a consistent productivity be achieved—a lesson well-learned from my mentor, Penny Monse.

At the same time, I supervised the front-desk/reception-area. This allowed me to be Prime’s official welcome-woman; essentially, I was the first impression new customers received of the company. With such a responsibility, I tried to convey to each customer Prime’s dedication to growing their business and its willingness to work hard to achieve that goal. Getting to interact with clients and help promote Prime’s professional image were my highlight experiences.

Most interesting of all was Prime’s climate. That’s not to say its temperature, (because as we all know that fluctuates between a sauna and a refrigerator) but rather the emotional temperament of the group. All the employees at Prime are dedicated to fulfilling their customers’ needs. I’ve seen the long hours they pull, striving for perfection, only to do the same for another client. It’s truly inspiring, the creativity and effort they put into their work. Their passion for their jobs reflects in their positive natures. Prime is its own family and one I feel welcome to be apart of.

Luckily for me, my time at Prime has not yet reached its end. I have been offered and have taken a fall position for after-school work. I am pumped to continue working with everyone and seeing what sort of projects Prime will send my way. This was definitely a learning summer, and with what I learned, I hope to make this fall, and this coming year, an equally educational one.

[View with PicLens]

As a member of the Maple Grove community since 1993, Prime Advertising & Design was proud to be a Gold Sponsor of the Maple Grove Days festival this year, and donated over 800 official event T-shirts to volunteers, committee members and 5K race participants.

In addition to the parade, Prime participated in the charity “bed race” benefitting the 40 Winks Foundation – a group that donates beds to various charitable organizations. Several Prime clients placed well in the competition including Slumberland (1^st), J Brothers Construction (2^nd), Rose Arbor (Most Creative), and J. Cousineau’s (Most Enthusiasm).

[View with PicLens]

Everyone had a great time, enjoyed the summer weather and loved seeing many of our clients participating as well in this successful community festival.  All of us here at Prime can’t wait ‘til next year!

Enjoy the below video of the Maple Grove Days fireworks finale.
Maple Grove Days Fireworks Video (requires QuickTime)

Prime Advertising is proud to have played a part in this year’s USA Cup. Working directly with one of our clients, CL!X Sports Photography, official photographer of the USA Cup.  CL!X came to Prime looking to update the theme of this year’s USA Cup photo merchandise for the teams and players.

Prime’s graphic design team created a fresh new look for a variety of products available to the players of the tournament.  Prime designed three new photo and poster background options for teams and individuals, sure to excite any soccer enthusiast.

The hot new item this year is the Personalized Trader Ticket. The Trader Ticket is customized with each player’s photo as well as personal information – team name, jersey number, country, etc. This option offers a fun and unique way for youth from around the globe to trade tickets amongst themselves and remember their USA Cup experience.  Prime also helped design a customizable soccer ball, which is sure to be a hit. Who wouldn’t want a soccer ball with their very own photo on it?

With these new designs, we have armed CL!X with products that are sure to grab the attention of these young athletes. Prime greatly appreciates the opportunity to offer our assistance on this project and we congratulate CL!X on being chosen for such an exclusive event!

[View with PicLens]

Cory from Stellar Keys and Remotes has been a vendor at the event before, but this year he wanted to take his display to the next step. Prime Advertising worked with Cory to help add more items to make his display larger, which included two more custom canopies, four additional custom table covers and some new items. Prime designed two new flying banner displays and new inserts for Stellar’s sidewalk sign. As a part of the new design, Prime introduced “Chip” for the first time!  Chip is an illustrated mascot that will help Stellar Keys promote its services.

For additional promotional items, Prime helped Stellar Keys with giveaway items. Prime updated the design on the brightly colored lanyards and calendar magnets.

With the larger display and increased visibility, Stellar Keys increased its sales by 40% over last year!

Hope to see you at the “Back to the 50’s” next year!

[View with PicLens]

Welcome to a brand-new online home for Prime Advertising & Design!

All of us here at Prime are very proud of the new website and how it fits so well with our new branding and look – but we are most excited about how the site will serve our clients and better explain our services.

Many of the changes you will see came following numerous conversations with our customers. Prime listened and heard what you wanted to see when you visit us online. With a home page designed to quickly direct the user to their area of interest, I believe we succeeded in maximizing the efficiency of our site by minimizing search time.

An important note is that the site is not only intended to let people know what Prime can do for them, but to assist clients and prospective customers as they imagine what can be accomplished for their own business.

Perhaps you feel your company’s website is long past due for a new look? Or your business’ logo is showing its age? Maybe you’re not sure how to effectively market your company, but know it’s time to do something? Our site will start your creative juices flowing and “spark the energy” your business needs to get back on the right track.

We are confident you will like Prime’s new online identity. Feel free to spend some time, take a look around,  and give us your feedback on this “soft launch” of the site. Check back often as we will be continuing to add new features and updated content!

I’d love to hear what you think, so please contact me with any questions or comments.

Wishing you continued success and prosperity,

Mark J. Murray
President/CEO
Prime Advertising & Design
Mark@PrimeAdvertising.com
763-315-6450

The team here at Prime has caught Minnesota Twins fever this spring! On the occasion of the Twins’ home opener at Target Field, and at the unofficial request of Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, several Prime employees decided to celebrate on April 12 by wearing official team garb.

Our team spirit is also featured on the KARE-11 website’s Twins’ photo gallery!

We’re excited to welcome the Twins back to outdoor baseball and wish them the best this season as they make a run for the playoffs and World Series!

Participating in the career development event was Nathan Olmscheid, Prime’s Director of Business Development. Olmscheid and eight other local business leaders were part of a panel discussion chaired by Anoka Chamber President Pete Turok. Following the panel, the day concluded with three roundtable sessions. These sessions allowed panel members to interact with students interested particular career paths.

Some of the topics touched on during the day included the rise of social media, and an analysis of career fields and job opportunities over the next several years. Prime is a proud member of the Anoka Area Chamber of Commerce, among other chambers, and its employees are frequently asked to share their thoughts on various issues, such as marketing, advertising, technology and public relations.

Mega Homes

In addition to the website, Mega Homes added a blog and newsletter feature to its website to be in continuous contact with existing home owners and potential new clients. Recently, the company has taken to social networking and have added pages on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn .

Prime Advertising was able to help create a unified look between their website, blog, e-newsletter and Twitter page. By creating a consistent look and feel, Mega Homes can make a Mega Impression for their name and brand.

Contact Prime Advertising & Design today to see how we can help your business enter the social media scene!

By Janine Popick


Every year here at VerticalResponse I make it a point to come up with a list of 10 things you need to be thinking about in the new year. They may be related to marketing, or running your business overall, and they’re usually something I relate to things I have to do in my own business.

1. Use “Cause Marketing” – This is the year that you should identify your business with a worthy cause and either donate a percentage of profits to it or contribute to it in some way. And if profits or hard cash don’t fit, consider donating employee time. Then in your email marketing campaigns, your marketing materials and sales pitches you should talk about what you’re doing and why it’s important to you. Your prospects and customers increasingly want to do business with a business that cares and has moral obligations, and they’re looking for you to let them know how you fit the bill.

2. Use Social Media with Email Marketing – Finally get your act together with social media this year. Start with Twitter and Facebook, it’s easy. Then set your goals on how many Twitter followers your business will get or how many Facebook fans you’ll attract. Make sure you tell your email marketing recipients to follow you when you send out a campaign. And don’t forget to post your links to your email campaigns in your Twitter account and Facebook pages and ask people to join your email list. All of these marketing vehicles work really well together and feed off of each other.

3. Nail Your Email Marketing – Your customers are your lifeblood in these economic times so make sure you put as much care as possible into how you communicate to them. One small yet important thing we all tend to overlook is the subject line, which is the most important part of your email. Whether you think about your subject line as the first order of business, or you write your email then come up with the subject line, take a moment and make sure it’s the right one. Here’s an idea the day before you send your campaign, take a small number of email recipients and split the list in two. Then send two different subject lines. If there is a clear winner, meaning one that has more clicks and opens, choose that one to roll out to your entire list the next day. If there isn’t a clear winner, then choose what your gut tells you to choose.

Test a different format or a different day to send your email campaign. Squeezing an extra few opens, clicks and sales can make a huge difference for your business all throughout the year.

Send regular surveys to your customers to find out how they rate your product, your company and customer service. Find out what you can be doing better, then tell your customers how you’re changing your ways in your next email newsletter because you’ve heard their message.

4. Make This the Year of Customer Service – People talk about companies that listen to them and that treat them well so you’ll want to go above and beyond with customer service this year. This is especially true since companies like Facebook and Twitter are taking off and becoming a platform for people to tell the world how they feel…about you. This might be the year you get your customer data all in one place so it’s easy to find a customer when they call. Then log all of their issues so you have it for next time. Try BigContacts, Zoho, ACT!, and Salesforce for low-priced options. Provide Support has an option for one operator for less than $10/month for a year. Also manage your incoming and outgoing customer service emails. Palo Alto Software has a great product called Email Center Pro where you can manage your incoming and outgoing emails from one central web location and it’s free for 2 users.

5. Cut Costs – Keep cutting costs because we’re still in the economic weeds. Look at your top spending categories and see if there’s money to be saved. Is your rent too high? If you’ve got a number of years left on it you might call your landlord and ask if you can renegotiate “stepped” payments. Ask for a discount this year and tell them in the future years you’re willing to pay at bit more per square foot. If you’re spending too much on shipping, start calling other providers to see if they’re competitive. Doing things like this in January will add up for the rest of the year and help you to profitability.

6. Listen to Your Customers – Listen and watch what your customers are saying about you. Sign up for Google Alerts with your company name as a keyword, but also with your competitor’s names so you can see what is being published about them as well. Sign up for a free TweetDeck account and do the same. You’ll see what people on Twitter are saying about your company, your competition and even your industry, up-to-the minute for an unlimited number of keywords. Then chime in to the conversation and address the issue or try to get a new customer. Word to the wise: make sure you’re transparent with who you are, you don’t want to “hide” as someone else, tell them you’re with your company and you want to help out or answer any questions.

7. Find New Customers, Inexpensively – Google is where people go these days to find businesses they’re looking for. So set up or build on your Google Adwords pay-per-click efforts. If you don’t know where to start with Google try Google Basics. Get started simple, choose keywords that make sense for your business and build on it from there. To find how many searches are happening on your keywords check out the Keyword Selector Tool to find out how many searches occur for your keywords. Note: although Google is the clear market leader, other search engines like Bing are gaining a bit of market share and can be less expensive. Word to the wise: take a deep breath and be patient, success doesn’t happen overnight but when you start to gain traction you’ll see that it does work and you can build on your success from there.

8. Build Your Email List – I’ve put together this blog post called 29 Ways to Collect Email Addresses for Your Business. Live it, learn it, love it.

9. Hire People Who Care – If you’re lucky enough to be hiring for your business, this should be the year where you have an ample choice of people who need to work to choose from, so it’s your pick. Make sure you select people who have the same passion as you do, and people that fit into your business culture like a glove. Make sure you ask the questions that count; you want someone who can handle situations, someone who can communicate and someone who you trust. Don’t settle for second best, your customers will notice.

10. Embrace Word of Mouth – At VerticalResponse over 50 percent of the people who sign up for our service select “Word of Mouth” as the source for where they heard about our company. In 2010 you’ll really need to take a good look at what you’re doing to spur word of mouth. As noted here, customer service is important, the quality of your product or service is important and the entire customer experience is important in order for word of mouth to start. But there are other remarkable things you can do for your customers that can start them talking about you.There are some great ideas on the VerticalResponse Blog as well as Andy Sernovitz’s Word of Mouth Marketing Blog to get you started.

2010 is poised to be a great year for growing your small business. Comment with your ideas for what you’ll do to get your growth on.