Prime Advertising & Design Blog

Prime client named “Top Online Influencer in Recruiting”

tom — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:25:21 +0000

Prime Advertising & Design client Jason Buss, an active member of the human resources and talent recruiting community, was recently named the “Top Online Influencer in Recruiting” by HR Examiner, a well-respected national online publication for the HR business. Buss, who is Vice President of Talent Acquisition & Diversity for Ameriprise in Minneapolis, runs the popular “Talent Buzz” blog, which was designed by Prime.

HR Examiner said Buss’s blog “is a constant and useful flow of commentary and information designed for the HR/Recruiting community. It’s no accident that he is the top-ranked person on our list of the Top 25 Online Influencers in Recruiting.”

Prime is proud of Jason’s personal career accomplishments and his commitment to helping businesses find quality staff members. To read more about him, check out his blog at: www.thetalentbuzz.com.

Prime director participates on business panel for local high school students

tom — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 16:46:12 +0000

The Anoka Area Chamber of Commerce, in partnership with the Anoka-Hennepin school district, recently held its 11th-annual Business Panel Day at Connexus Energy in Ramsey. The event was attended by approximately 90 students from Anoka, Andover, Blaine, Champlin Park, Coon Rapids and STEP high schools.

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.

Nathan Olmscheid, Prime's Director of Business Development (right), joined other local business representatives for the panel.

Mega Homes Makes a Mega Impression

Janna — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 15:17:10 +0000

Mega Homes, a custom home builder located in Dayton, Minn. has jumped into the world of social networking with both feet. Last year, Prime Advertising & Design helped create a website with a sophisticated look and feel. It was built on a content management system so Mega Homes staff could easily update it with information about new model homes, photo properties, and company updates.

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!

New year’s checklist for your business

tom — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 22:47:24 +0000

Prime recently received this post from Janine Popick, CEO of VerticalResponse. She makes many good points, and we thought this would be worthy of sharing with our Prime clients. Continue to regularly check out the Prime blog for the latest tips to help your business grow in 2010 and beyond!

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.

Heating & Cooling Two “heats it up” with Prime Advertising & Design

Janna — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 17:32:38 +0000

Heating & Cooling Two, a Maple Grove residential and commercial HVAC contractor, has been working with Prime Advertising & Design to “heat up” its marketing.

Prime Advertising & Design knows that marketing your business is not just about focusing on one area, it is about using a variety of media together to reach the greatest amount of potential clients possible. With this game plan in mind, Prime has helped Heating & Cooling Two diversify its marketing in a variety of areas.

In the fall of 2009, Heating & Cooling Two launched a redesigned website featuring a content management system (CMS) that allows staff to regularly update the site to better serve customers. Some of new site’s features include:

An e-commerce section where clients can buy filters online
The latest “Hot Deals” and specials
The ability to create redirector links. This allows for marketing materials to have a URL (www.heatcool2.com/specials) linking clients to a specific page on the site. This feature also allows for statistical analytics to show how many people are visiting this location on the site, showing marketing effectiveness.
Visitors can request maintenance for their furnace or air conditioner online or request an estimate.
The Heating & Cooling Two blog features updated information and helpful tips for visitors and provides a reason for people to come back to the site.

In addition to the new website, Prime created a full marketing package for Heating & Cooling Two including Comcast cable television ads, radio ads, advertising in Community Resource and Residents’ Guides, city newsletters, and direct-mail pieces. We also feature the company on our digital indoor advertising network at Hennepin County service centers.

Prime Advertising & Design used its awareness of the latest trends to help Heating & Cooling Two market its services and increase the company’s exposure to potential new clients. Check out Heating & Cooling Two’s new website at: www.heatcool2.com.

Roxie – the newest member of the Prime family!

tom — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 22:41:12 +0000

We’d like to officially welcome Roxie to the Prime family. Roxie is a happy, healthy 10-week-old Yorkshire Terrier owned by Prime President and CEO Mark Murray. Roxie will serve as goodwill ambassador and congeniality director here. Be sure to greet her the next time you’re at our offices here in Maple Grove.

Welcoming Gov. Pawlenty to Osseo!

tom — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 22:15:51 +0000

A contingent from Prime braved sub-zero temperatures Dec. 15 to share lunch with Gov. Tim Pawlenty at the Osseo American Legion. The governor was in town as the keynote speaker at the Osseo Business Association (OBA) monthly meeting. After shaking hands and exchanging in small talk with audience members, Gov. Pawlenty spoke for 30 minutes on a variety of topics.

Gov. Pawlenty said he is proud of Minnesota’s accomplishments as a state, noting that its rankings in most quality-of-life measurements are in the top five to 10 nationally. While these ratings are positive, Pawlenty said one of his priorities while serving as governor since 2003 has also been to “provide access to jobs and economic opportunity.”

To help spur job creation and innovation in the state, the governor said Minnesota’s elected officials must “ask business people and business leaders what will make them more successful” and find new solutions to move the state forward.

”Nostalgia isn’t a strategic plan for the future,” he said. “Minnesota needs to be more competitive.”

Pawlenty also gave the assembled crowd his thoughts on health care and education, and took several questions from the audience to round out his appearance in Osseo.

Rotary Club of Maple Grove Silent Auction comes “From the Heart”

tom — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 17:58:24 +0000

Understanding that today’s youth represent the future of our country, the Rotary Club of Maple Grove has been a longtime advocate of initiatives that assist young people. Led this year by President Tom Anderson, the club hosted a dinner and silent auction on Nov. 21 in support of the club’s local educational programs, as well as national and international causes.

Several area businesses and organizations sponsored the event. Prime Advertising & Design Vice President (and Rotarian) Marilyn Bina served on the Silent Auction Steering Committee along with Dr. Carolyn Apker, Jason Bauerly (chair), Jeffrey Berg, Doug Broman, DeeDee Heitzman, David Henningson, Dan Hill, Tony Kieffer, Bob Kochenderfer, Robin Manthei, Kirk Moleski, Susan Peterson, Jane Schmidt, and Suzanne Sem.

Auction items included: an Australian-themed basket; custom-made wine cabinet; Giant’s Ridge golf package; Mark’s Lawn Service certificate; Northwest Suburban Conference athletic pass; Rush Creek golf package for four; Timberwolves suite package; and accommodations at the Winfield Inn in Bayfield, Wis. The event well exceeded the stated goal of $35,000.

One great example of how Maple Grove Rotarians have become involved in the lives of local youth is the STRIVE program. In STRIVE, club members serve as mentors during the school year, and ultimately reward scholarship money to students who have excelled in school by achieving high grades and regular scholastic attendance.

Other significant Maple Grove Rotary Club activities include: the Junior Rotarian programs at Osseo and Maple Grove high schools; “Service Above Self” scholarships; leadership training at Camp Enterprise; Camp RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards); The Ethics Workshop; and assistance in the Sophomore Respect Retreat and Link Crew.

In addition, the club donates about 2,000 hats and mittens to elementary school students through the “Warm Heads, Warm Hands, Warm Hearts” program, and 1,600 dictionaries are distributed to local third graders. International Rotary efforts include the fight against polio, building a school in Haiti, an eye clinic in Borneo, and relief causes such as “H20 for Life” and “The Run for Darfur.”

Gold sponsors included: Ameriprise Financial/First Class Mortgage Froehling Anderson, Ltd. Henningson & Snoxell, Ltd. Klein Bank Maple Grove Hospital North Memorial Healthcare Osseo-Maple Grove Press Pearle Vision – Maple Grove Rotary Club of Brooklyn Park Jane Schmidt – Keller Williams Classic Realty

Silver sponsors included: Raymond James Financial Services, Inc. Rotary Club of Crystal-New Hope-Robbinsdale Rotary Club of Rogers

Bronze sponsors included: Austin Mutual Insurance Co. Broman Chiropractic, P.A. ISD 279 Osseo Area Schools Prestige Builders of Minnesota Thomas D. Jenson, Ltd.

Special thanks as well to Rhonda Robinson of Indigo Journeys, Giants Ridge Golf Resort, and Malmborg’s Garden Center.

Prime sponsors award at 13th Annual COTY Awards dinner

tom — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 18:47:54 +0000

Prime Advertising & Design has been a proud member of the National Association of the Remodeling Industry (NARI) for years. So when given the chance to support NARI by sponsoring the Associate of the Year Award at the 13th Annual Contractor of the Year (COTY) Awards, Prime was happy to do so. Congratulations to Granite Tops for winning, and to The Remodeler’s Choice for taking Honorable Mention honors.

The COTY Awards were held Nov. 23 at the McNamara Alumni Center on the campus of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. The COTY Awards recognize the best of the best of the remodeling industry in a variety of categories including kitchens, bathrooms, interiors, additions, overall home, historical renovations, sustainable design, universal design, and exteriors. The event was hosted by Karen Sorbo, a professional auctioneer and Minnesota native

The awards dinner was attended by Prime President and CEO Mark Murray and Prime’s Media Production Manager Jody Niskanen. Jody has been very involved in the NARI organization, serving as a member of the NARI board and committees. Also in attendance, and nominated in the Residential Kitchen category, were representatives from Prime client J Brothers Home Improvement.

The COTY Awards are granted to remodeling contractors based on how their submitted project enhanced the existing structure functionally and aesthetically, used superior craftsmanship and innovative materials or construction methods, overcame difficult obstacles, and delivered a product that met the client’s expressed objectives.

According to NARI Member Specialist Josh Dye, there were a record 123 entries across 25 categories in this year’s competition, which was a 20 percent increase over last year. The following are this year’s winners:

Residential Kitchen $60,000 and Under Winner: Otogawa-Anschel Design-Build Honorable Mention: James Barton Design-Build

Residential Kitchen $60,001-$75,000 Winner: Otogawa-Anschel Design-Build Honorable Mention: Ispiri Design Build Remodel

Residential Kitchen $75,001-$90,000 Winner: Structural Dimensions, Inc. Honorable Mention: DreamMaker Bath & Kitchen

Residential Kitchen $90,001-$120,000 Winner: Edgework Builders Honorable Mention: Wooden Dreams

Residential Kitchen Over $120,000 Winner: Plekkenpol Builders Honorable Mention: Stonehouse Designs

Residential Bath $30,000 & Under Winner: Gonyea Homes & Remodeling Honorable Mention: Home Restoration Services

Residential Bath $30,001-$60,000 Winner: Sylvestre Construction Honorable Mention: Brinkman Russell

Residential Bath Over $60,000 Winner: White Crane Construction Honorable Mention: Stonehouse Designs

Residential Interior $150,000 and Under Winner: Architrave Design & Remodeling Honorable Mention: Home Restoration Services

Residential Interior Over $150,000 Winner: Posch Builders Honorable Mention: CASE

Residential Interior Specialty Winner: mackmiller design+build Honorable Mention: mackmiller design+build

Commercial Interior, Exterior or Specialty Winner: Sass Construction

Residential Addition $200,000 and Under Winner: Gonyea Homes & Remodeling Honorable Mention: Northrup Remodeling

Residential Addition Over $200,000 Winner: TreHus Architects + Interior Designers + Builders Honorable Mention: Stonehouse Designs

Residential Historical Renovation/Restoration Winner: Open Air Concepts Honorable Mention: Stonehouse Designs

Residential Exterior Winner: Showcase Renovation Honorable Mention: Woodside Homes

Residential Exterior Specialty Winner: TreHus Architects + Interior Designers + Builders Honorable Mention: Awad + Koontz Architects Builders

Entire House $250,000 and Under Winner: Otogawa-Anschel Design-Build Honorable Mention: College City Remodeling

Entire House $250,001- $500,000 Winner: Kuhl Design Build Honorable Mention: Jones Design Build

Entire House Over $500,000 Winner: Knight Construction Design Honorable Mention: Briscoe Home Renovation

Best Newcomer Winner: Posch Builders

Sustainable Remodeling Award Winner: Otogawa-Anschel Design-Build Honorable Mention: Open Air Concepts

Universal Design Winner: College City Remodeling Honorable Mention: mackmiller design+build

Associate of the Year Winner: Granite Tops Honorable Mention: The Remodeler’s Choice

Best of Show Winner: Open Air Concepts

Halloween brings out Prime’s creative spirit

tom — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 19:08:47 +0000

We love to get creative here at Prime Advertising & Design (and have a lot of fun, too). So when Halloween rolled around this year, our whole staff got in the spirit of the occasion – donning assorted costumes designed to amuse – and frighten – those who dared to enter our offices on Oct. 30. A potluck featuring dishes with names like “Severed Snake Parts” and “Bloody Compost,” was served, and we washed it down with eyeball apple cider. A ghoulish time was had by all! Have a safe and Happy Halloween!