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Andrea Anglin, A Woman Who Leads

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Andrea Anglin selected as a woman who leads by the Wichita Business Journal

Project Manager and Public Relations Strategist, Andrea Anglin has been selected as a Woman Who Leads – Board of Directors by the Wichita Business Journal.

Andrea has a passion for helping and a heart for serving her community in all that she does. Her serving endeavors include volunteering at her church, donating time and resources to nonprofit organizations, and having a helpful and friendly attitude in the workplace, with clients, and with coworkers.

Project Manager by day, leader and volunteer by night

Beyond her career as a digital marketer at Baseline Creative, Andrea fills her time by serving her community through various leadership positions. With a background working in the nonprofit industry, Andrea believes in servant leadership to make her community a better place.

Furthermore, Andrea uses her time and talent to make a difference in several nonprofit organizations. She serves as Secretary for the Alzheimer’s Association, and is involved with the Marketing Committee for the Walk to End Alzheimer’s. In addition, Andrea serves as co-chair for the League of Women Voters Wichita, Metro’s Membership Committee.

When asked for advice to those who want to get involved and serve, Andrea says, “Find a cause and an organization you’re passionate about and don’t be afraid to roll up your sleeves and do the work.”

Our passion for serving others

Giving back to organizations and serving our community is an important part of who we are at Baseline Creative.

Executive Director, Bridgette West-Williams serves and as a leader and volunteer for various local organizations. For example, she serves as a board member and Membership Committee co-chair for League of Women Voters Wichita, Metro. In addition, Bridgette is a donor and volunteer for Camp Sunflower and as a board member, donor, and volunteer for ICT SOS.

Bridgette also supports and contributes to a slew of community organizations, including Rise Up For YouthProgenyBeauties & BeastsWAALKansas Humane SocietyLawrence Humane SocietyKMUWKPTS, and Kansas Alliance for Wetlands and Streams.

Principal and Owner, Nathan Williams also supports local organizations through various efforts. This includes donating to organizations and serving as an in-kind sponsor through work at Baseline Creative.

Service is an important part of our company culture; and our entire team chooses to give back to organizations they are passionate about serving.

Organizations our team supports regularly through donations, volunteering, and serving as board members include:

American Institute of Graphic Arts – Wichita Chapter

AIWF Wichita Chapter

All Creatures Animal Welfare Trust

Alzheimer’s Association

Atlanta Humane Society

Art for Arthritis – Mentor Artist

Big Brothers Big Sisters

Camp Sunflower

Cigar Family Charitable Foundation

Kansas City Pet Project

Gridiron

ICT SOS

Kansas Humane Society

Kansas Alliance for Wetlands and Streams

Kansas K9 ResQ

KMUW Radio

League of Women Voters Wichita, Metro

SCORE Wichita Chapter

St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church

Woods Humane Society

Fresh Hope

Run Wichita

Exodus Church

Girls on the Run of Kansas

Avenue Art Days

Young Latino Professionals of Wichita

West Ridge Community Church

Above all, we value serving others and love to find ways to give back. While volunteering looks different for each person, the heart for serving others is the same.

Baseline designed a new logo and website for ICT SOS

ICT SOS: A Case Study

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10 Years of Fighting Human Trafficking

A decade ago ICT SOS was created to help people in Wichita connect with the agencies and organizations that help victims of human trafficking. In 2016, Baseline Creative worked closely with ICT SOS on rebranding and website development. The result was a brand and new logo that conveyed the hope that the organization provides to human trafficking survivors and a new website. Fast-forward to 2021 and as ICT SOS celebrates its 10-year anniversary, Baseline Creative is again providing support.

Designers at Baseline created a special anniversary logo that ICT SOS will use throughout the year. In addition, Baseline Creative is donating website development and technology support, a 10-year anniversary logo, videography, and additional design and digital marketing assistance throughout 2021. “Overall, the work Baseline Creative is donating is close to $30,000 in support, and we have been excited to continue to assist ICT SOS in the important work they do,” said Bridgette West-Williams, Executive Director at Baseline Creative.

“Baseline designed our latest logo, and we love the way they incorporated the 10 into it for this anniversary.”  In addition to the special logo, ICT SOS is launching an updated website, also designed and donated by Baseline Creative. “As we’ve grown and added programs, we needed to update our digital space, and we love how this turned out,” White said.

The new website includes updated branding, podcasts, and new programs including an Adult Advocate program that the organization has recently launched. “We were so happy to work with Jen and her team,” West-Wiliams said. “We work hard to help ICT SOS reach people to get and give help to survivors of human trafficking which is one of the most rewarding projects we get to lead.”

In addition to the updated website, Baseline Creative is designing a 10-year logo for the Race 4 Freedom event. The annual race has raised more than $200,000 for organizations that provide direct services to youth. This year the Race 4 Freedom will raise money for ICT SOS instead of a partner organization. “The Race 4 Freedom is an event we’ve helped with before, and it seemed appropriate that we would help again this year, on the 10-year anniversary,” West-Williams said.

Kylie Jenner is a well-known influencer

Influencer Marketing

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Have you utilized influencer marketing in the past? If not, this may be the year to start.

Influencer marketing has gained traction in recent years as social media continues to be a growing medium.

What is Influencer Marketing?

Influencer marketing is similar to the idea of celebrity endorsements, without the added costs of producing a fully fleshed-out advertising campaign.

Influencer marketing utilizes leaders to promote your brand message and drive sales. In addition, it is a simple and affordable way to get your brand in front of thousands of people who aren’t in your existing audience. To clarify, it’s readily available.

This helps generate brand awareness, increase traffic, and reach a broader audience of potential customers. The process starts by finding a content creator or figure who connects with your audience and aligns with your brand or product.

Influencer Marketing Campaigns

Think of your favorite brand that you know and love, and you’ll likely be able to recall a campaign or paid promotion that left an impression.

Influencers can be local figures, like fashion bloggers, beauty gurus, and they can also be a-list celebrities.

For instance, Kylie Jenner has been deemed the highest-paid Instagram influencer, making 1.2 million for a single Instagram post. Notable paid partnerships with Jenner include Sugar Bear Hair, Puma, and in-house brand Kylie Cosmetics.

Another example includes Joelle Fletcher from The Bachelorette who has a paid promotion with Heineken®. This campaign highlights their new Zero Alcohol Beer in a campaign to promote “Dry January.”

This commercial runs on ABC network during the premiere of The Bachelor episodes every Monday from 7-9 p.m.

Influencer Marketing and Beyond

Are you in need of a digital marketing boost this year? Or do you need help finding the right influencer for a partnership with your brand? Contact Baseline Creative for help with branding, design, or development. We’d love to help you achieve your marketing goals.

Lead generation often starts with paid ads.

Generate & Capture Leads

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Leads are important to nearly every business because each lead is a potential new customer. Lead generations start with your marketing efforts which will drive customers to your website and to lead capture tools on your website. However, you may wonder what options are available to you for lead generation and lead capture?

What is a Lead Generation?

Lead generation drives people to your website or social media channels through your marketing efforts. Lead generation provides multiple touchpoints for your customers to reach you, and find out more about what you offer.

Methods for lead generation include email marketing, paid advertising, referral marketing, and social media marketing. Email marketing and social media marketing also allow you to engage in lead nurturing which can convert to more sales. Examples of lead nurturing include inviting leads to webinars, sending case studies, or other kinds of helpful information.

What is Lead Capture?

Once at your website or social media channels, lead capture tools offer a reason for customers to take that extra step needed to covert a sale. Lead capture is when a customer provides your business with their contact information.

Lead capture can include signup forms, or a free demonstration, or downloads such as help guides, white papers, or e-books. When your customer fills out the form, they provide you with the information you need to move them from a lead to a sale. The quality of the kind of download you provide will make your lead capture tool more effective as it will be perceived as more valuable.

Lead capture is part of the end game, but customers must also be fully informed of how you will use their information. Do not bait and switch your leads and do not sell their information to third-parties. Once you have captured leads, respect their privacy or risk losing the customer and damaging your brand.

Lead Generation Options

As mentioned above, there are several ways you can engage in lead generation through your marketing efforts. Paid advertisements are a great way to target your potential customers.

Digital marketing is an affordable and effective way to do lead generation. Paid ads on social media and through Google Ads allow your customer base to be targeted fairly granularly. These ads can drive customers to your website where your product or service is explained and a lead capture tool is available for them to provide you with their contact information. Email marketing is another great tool for nurturing current customers or potential leads.

Need Assistance?

Baseline Creative can help your lead generation efforts through digital marketing and web development. Contact us today to see how we can help!

SMART goals help small businesses grow

SMART Goals Help You Plan for Success

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What Does SMART Stand For?

The acronym SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. As you write your objectives, do so with this framework in mind. As you start to plan a project, setting SMART goals will help you define and measure success. Only three percent of adults have clear, measurable, time-bound goals that are written down. However, those in that three percent accomplish ten times more than people with no goals.

How to Write SMART Goals

Specific – Your goals must be specific. Don’t just say that you want to increase sales—provide a number. Instead, get specific. Are you increasing overall sales or sales on a product or service that needs to be improved? Also, include the time frame you need to work within. You want to increase sales by 20% in the first quarter.

Measurable – Your goal needs to be measurable. In the example above if you want to increase sales, how do you measure that? How can you measure your objective? Usually, this will be through a conversion of some kind, in our example, we can measure sales by the number of products or services purchased. In this case, it is relatively easy to track the number of new sales.

Achievable – Keep your goals achievable. For instance, it’s probably not realistic to say you want to increase sales by 100% in the first quarter. For one, you may not actually have the capacity to increase sales by that much. You may need to order more inventory, or revamp processes to make this achievable and perhaps those efforts are just not realistic in the time frame you are working within. Achievable goals keep you moving forward and help you plan realistic implementation. Instead of setting a goal to increase sales by 100% in the first quarter, a review of your processes and inventory may show that a 20% increase is more realistic.

Relevant – Your goals need to be relevant. Why is this goal important to your business? For example, increasing sales by 20% in the first quarter will help you to launch a new product in the fourth quarter which is part of a long-term goal for the business.

Time-Bound – Deadlines are important because you need parameters to accomplish your goal. Setting a specific timeframe will help you and your team to stay on track, which will help you reach that goal. In our continuing example, the first quarter is the time frame. Set a specific date, such as March 31 as the deadline.

Reaching Your SMART Goals

Strategy, planning, and implementation are vital to helping any business grow. Whether you sell products or services, you need SMART goals to be successful. Whether it’s on the strategy and planning end, or implementation, Baseline Creative would love to help you reach your goals. Contact us to start a conversation.

A digital camera captures a custom stock photo of a cup of coffee

Custom Stock Photography

By Blog, Uncategorized

There are several benefits of having custom stock photography for your business. However, you may wonder if it’s necessary for your company.

The terms ‘custom’ and ‘stock’ may sound like they don’t go hand in hand. For instance, if it’s a stock photo, then how is it also defined as custom?

A library of custom stock photos means you can ditch browsing websites for stock images that don’t capture or reflect your brand. Custom stock photography gives you the ability to portray your brand image and company culture through original photos.

4 Benefits of Custom Stock Images

  1. A professional photography/videography session.
  2. Photo and video editing that portrays your brand image.
  3. Unique and original assets with a personal touch, providing a cohesive look across all platforms.

Imagery plays an important role in branding, and it can make or break a business. Companies need photos for everything they have to offer, including products and services.

From social media content, to blog posts and marketing materials, you need photos. So, why not make them custom stock photos that are original and unique to your brand?

Custom Stock Photography by Baseline Creative

Are you in need of original photos that capture your business in its finest element? At Baseline Creative, our team can do it all. From the photography session, to editing images, and posting them to your website or social media, we are here to help.

However, we offer more than just photography and videography. Some of our capabilities include developing brand identity and image, creating social media campaigns, and designing and building custom websites.

If you’re in the market for updated headshots, custom stock imagery, or other marketing needs, contact us to start a conversation. No task is too complex for our team of strategists, designers, and developers to handle!

Rebranding strategy in a word cloud

Is it time for a brand refresh?

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A successful rebrand entails more than just a redesigned logo.

Some brands may require an entire overhaul. This can include evaluating your current brand, assessing your company goals or marketing strategies, and researching or conducting focus groups to understand how customers feel about your brand.

Three Reasons to Refresh Your Brand

There are several factors that can influence a company to rebrand, including:

  1. Rebuilding a loyal following
  2. Embracing a new philosophy, values, or mission
  3. Desiring a fresh new look

The History of Popular Rebrands

Some of the most well-known and influential brands have updated their brand more than once or twice.

For instance, McDonald’s has refreshed its brand at least once a decade. Their most recent rebrand incorporates vibrant colors on the packaging and in stores, as opposed to their signature red and yellow. However, the famous golden arches haven’t gone anywhere. Rebranding has also included updated taglines, from “You deserve a break today” to “I’m lovin’ it” the fast-food giant has included brand slogans into their marketing.

MasterCard is another recognizable brand with its red and yellow circles. The credit card company upgraded their logo, website, and other marketing staples for a complete brand overhaul in 2019.

Hardware and appliance staple, Sears had undergone several rebrands. From it’s start as Sears & Roebuck in 1906, the retailer relied on catalogs to sell products. After opening brick and mortar stores in 1925, Sears quickly became one of the biggest retailers in the nation. Known for hardware and appliances, Sears rebranded in the 1990’s to promote their softlines, including women’s fashion, shoes, men’s wear and kids’ clothing. Marketing efforts promoted “The Softer Side of Sears” to women. The latest rebranding effort in 2020 has fallen flat as many pointed out that the new Sears logo bears a striking resemblance to Air B&B.

Ready to Refresh?

Now that you’re familiar with the definition of rebranding and case studies for reference, you may decide that it’s time for a rebrand. Whether you’re looking to rename, redefine, or rebuild your brand or business, we can help!

Baseline Creative is equipped to redesign your brand from the ground up. We will assess your current brand, and recommend strategies and innovations based on our research and industry knowledge. Contact us to have a conversation about where your brand is and where you would like it to go.

Case Study: Kansas Hispanic Education Development Foundation

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Each year Baseline Creative works with nonprofits that align with our vision for a better community. When the Kansas Hispanic Education Development Foundation (KHEDF) reached out to us for a web redesign, we were excited to help. KHEDF opens doors for Hispanic students in Kansas to help make their college dreams come true through scholarships and leadership development.

KHEDF needed an updated website that better reflected their brand, and included functionality to help them add events, spotlight student success stories and include donor recognition. The ability for students to fill out an online form was also important. Micaela Ramirez, KHEDF Executive Director said they chose to work with Baseline because of our experience with nonprofits and understanding their needs.

Baseline set out to visually incorporate the colors in the logo to the website and create user-friendly navigation that would appeal to the student demographic as well as donors and volunteers. Ramirez said, “Our team really enjoyed the creativity and effectiveness the Baseline Creative team implemented in the story telling of our mission and services we provide.”

In addition, an online scholarship form was needed to help automate the process for both student applicants, and KHEDF staff and volunteers. Student applicants can now apply online, save their application and return to it later if needed. KHEDF also needed an easy-to-use event calendar and a way to highlight student success stories and donors. Baseline was able to build these functions as well as online payments for events, and donations.

Collaboration is an integral value at Baseline and it’s important to us internally, and with our clients. As a relationship-based agency, we believe in listening to the client, getting insights from them, and combing that with data and our own experience to create quality work product. “Our team really enjoyed working with the Baseline team and how each of their team members talents and expertise came together to implement our thoughts, needs, and goals within our website. Their team was great at communicating, offering ideas, and their turnaround time was amazing,” said Ramirez.

As we started the project we discovered that the designer assigned to the project, Gabby Garlow, had received a KHEDF scholarship when she was in school. “It was a pleasant surprise to know that Gabby was the person designing our website,” Ramirez said. “It feels like we have come full circle to have one of our students succeed in school and then help design our new website.” Baseline has extensive experience working with nonprofits for website development, graphic design, training, public relations, and social media. Contact us to talk about how we can help you save time and resources with a new website.

Marketing Plan in 2021

Marketing in 2021

By Blog

What will your marketing plan look like in 2021? There are some trends that should be considered when making your plan or working with an agency like Baseline Creative to make your plan.

Social media, technology, and web presence, and cause marketing will be important elements include in your marketing plan in the new year.

Social Media  

Social Media will continue to be an important part of your marketing plans. While it may not make sense for your business to be on every social media platform, businesses need to be on social.

Most of your customers simply expect to find you there. In this way, social media serves as a local listing of sorts—which boosts your SEO and makes it easier for people to find you.

For those in retail, food, the hospitality industry, or even health care, social media is a natural fit, and platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, and even TikTok are likely to put your business in front of your customers. For those whose products and services are more business to business (B2B) chances are that a presence on Facebook and LinkedIn is enough. Your marketing goals and target audiences will help determine where you should be on social.

Social media, when done right, can help improve your customer service experience. Responding quickly to customer inquiries, or customer feedback can help you build credibility for your business and can help you recognize the things you do well in addition to opportunities to grow and change.

Influencers will also continue to be an important element of marketing in 2021. While it may look different for every business, an influencer can get your product or services in front of a targeted audience and provide credibility to your business.

Technology

Technology and the ability for your customers to shop, meet, or conduct business online is going to remain vital in 2021. According to Census.gov, online purchasing increased by 44% in the second quarter of 2020 and was at 37.1% in the third quarter. Many experts agree that even as businesses open back up to the public, e-commerce will still be important.

Ecommerce has been the difference between success and failure during Covid. For example, this year, restaurants that never offered online ordering, quickly had to add that to their websites to remain viable as dining rooms were closed during the pandemic. This kind of quick adaptability was critical to success for many.  Online shops for retailers, including small businesses, is also a trend that is continuing. Businesses will need to continue to provide virtual, delivery, and online ordering capabilities to remain adaptable in 2021.

In the same vein, search engine optimization (SEO) will be even more important in your marketing plan. As more retailers and businesses compete for our attention, SEO will be key to make sure your website is offered up to the right audience, more often.

Cause Marketing and Social Issues

According to EngageforGood.com, “71% of Americans believe that companies have more responsibility than ever before to address social justice issues and 56% say companies that do not talk about social justice issues in their marketing or communications are out of touch.” This is especially true for Gen Z who are increasing their purchasing power every year, and who expect the brands they support to take a stand on social issues.

Several examples of cause marketing include Nike’s “Dream Crazier” campaign aimed at celebrating women in sports. Ben & Jerry’s ice cream brand has been supporting the Black Lives Matter movement since 2016 and has incorporated their support into messaging on their website, in blogs, and even in products. For Ben & Jerry’s cause marketing isn’t a gimmick, it’s a part of their brand’s culture.

Cause marketing is more than supporting a favorite nonprofit throughout the year. Cause marketing should incorporate your brand and involve marketing, advertising, and public relations as well as internal communications. In short, cause marketing should go beyond just one event or campaign.

Bring on 2021!

Most of us are looking forward to a new year and leaving the trauma and chaos of 2020 behind us. However, we must not forget the lessons we learned in this challenging year and should strive to grow in 2021.

If you need to develop or add to your marketing plan in 2021, Baseline Creative would be happy to help. Contact us for a conversation about how we can help you reach your goals in the new year.

Email notification on a tablet

The Art and Science of Effective Communication

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Marketing is ever-changing, and as professionals, we have to evolve our strategies and keep up with industry best practices.

Recently, the Baseline Creative strategists attended a webinar hosted by the Kansas Chapter of PRSA with keynote speaker Kristin Graham, Principal of Culture & Communications at Amazon. Graham came to speak about effective ways to communicate in a time in which people are having digital overload.

Effective Communication in the Digital Age

Email communications have increased 31% since March, according to Campaign Monitor. In addition, many companies have shifted their workspaces to be permanently remote due to the pandemic. As a result, employees have adopted new methods of communicating virtually, including video conferences, chat rooms, and a surge in email communications. This is a change that while keeps employees safe, has created communication challenges.

Our brains are flooded with information from the moment we wake up in the morning to the time we go to sleep each night. Advanced technology and mobile devices make it easy to send and receive information within seconds. Within seconds of starting our days, we begin to experience decision fatigue.

As a business or organization, ensuring your employee communications are as clear and actionable as your client communications are important. According to Graham, we can achieve this with bite-sized cookies of information, rather than long, drawn-out emails.

3 Tips to Help Email Stand Out

Graham offered up three ways in which you can make your internal, or external email communications break through digital clutter.

  1. Use a clear, intentional subject line with no punctuation. The ideal length is seven-10 words.
  2. Keep your body content to 111 words. This is the “sweet spot” and after this number, 49% will stop reading. Break up your content with spaces.
  3. BLOT (Bottom Line on Top) or don’t bury the lede. The most important information should be at the top of the email including deadlines.

Making Messages Stick

The brain can process visuals 65,000 times faster than words so when possible, use a combination of visuals and words for the most effective communication. This combination of visual and auditory will help your audience recall the message.

Graham reiterated that as communicators we need to respect the brain drain that is happening all around us. By using clear subject lines, concise content, and using “multi-sensory activation”, we can help our internal and external audiences understand what we have to say. Providing more effective communication is key to any person, in any industry.