It’s time to redesign our website. Our company has changed significantly over the last couple of years and our web presence should reflect that.
I gave our team the following objectives, stepped back and let them loose. You can be the judge of how well these have been achieved. A taste of our new marketing is featured in the February 2011 issue of CT&L and we needed to coordinate our new web with that release date. The directives were as follows and can act as a helpful guideline for anyone in the process of updating their site.
Message first – It’s great to be clever but it’s critical to communicate…if you can combine the two it becomes memorable and creates impact
Front door message– Lead with your strength which in our case is 22 years of experience marketing the transportation industry. It’s important not to cast too wide a net and weight your product offerings so that people get a real sense of who you are and what you do…in short order
Side door message – Leave the door open to other opportunities which for us is the fact that our process works for any industry. You need to back that side door message up with hard facts to make it believable.
Easy to navigate – With the help of Google Analytics you can track how customers are reacting to your site through a number of metrics. Most come to your site to get contact info and get an overall impression if this is a company they want to deal with. Ease of navigation is a key element.
Warm and personal – Our clients are becoming directly involved with a higher proportion of our staff. It’s a function of running lean and streamlining communications. In general terms, we believe it is important that your web has a personality that reflects your company. A few real shots mixed in with a stock library can help accomplish this. Yes people leave but the web can be updated very easily. It’s a more dynamic and flexible media that you can measure a return on.
Assess the brand – Take a look at your brand elements. Do they need a tweak. Is your tag line unique and does it help establish a persona for the company. In B2B you can change elements of your brand without so much as a ripple in the stream. Be open to subtle change. It can breathe new life into your marketing.
Incorporate social media – We continue to experiment in this area. Our blog efforts have shown the most return. You need a champion to lead this charge. Anything that brings fresh content to your site helps promote your company and raise your ranking on search engines
Engage SEO (search engine optimization) – There is an expense to this and it varies on the size of the site and how deep you want to go with. We plan on taking it all the way. Why? It works and you can clearly measure the results (With Google Analytics) and fine tune it for even greater benefit in the future
Meet the Deadline – It’s important to set a date and work towards it with diligence. You get a certain flow that takes the project to a higher level. When too much time goes by where the project is parked on a shelf, it’s increasingly hard to get it off the bottom of the pile and successfully launched.
Lee’s quote for the day
“Change is good and engaging proper SEO powers your site like fuel powers your vehicle. Doing one without the other doesn’t make much sense or get you any further down the road”
I have always been a creative person. The thrill to create a concept, present an idea or offer a solution is what I have done for most of my career. Sales and Marketing has always been my forte, perhaps for my love of meeting new people, good listening skills and positive energy has brought me much success.
It has now been over 15 years that I have worked in the corporate world and have been exposed to so many different business verticals. As a consultant with the Hotel industry, I did extensive internet market research, print ads and successfully converted them to an online printing service. While working with a 3D software company, I was exposed to the power of technology and how huge media effects business everyday. My recent introduction to the entertainment industry has brought me production and story building experience and has got my mind racing. Lastly, I was the owner and creator of in a box gift company and serviced corporate clients with awards and employee recognition programs.
I love my job, our clients and being part of a fun and creative team!
I’ve always been interested in the environment; weather, animals, the science behind things, pretty much everything that makes up our planet. I always thought storm chasers had the best job! I’ve also been fortunate to have travelled to over 20 different countries, with many unique experiences.
Acadia University had a solid Environmental Science program, so I went there for my B.Sc. Afterwards, I got involved in helping long haul trucking companies reduce their fuel consumption and costs, continued with insurance in the transportation industry and now onto marketing.
I joined Palmer Marketing at the beginning of 2019, excited to help the company continue to grow. With a rich background in the transportation industry and several years of experience developing strong relationships with customers, it was a slam dunk decision.
I look forward to continuing my career here at PM!
I started Palmer Marketing at age 34 in January of 1988. I had 2 kids in diapers and a crazy idea about running my own company. I came from an entrepreneurial family and had no good reason to believe it wasn’t possible and as it happens, it was.
As I approach retirement age, I have a pretty good grasp of marketing especially within the transportation industry. Over the last few years I have released 4 music albums of original material. The success I had in business helped me fulfill this childhood dream.
We have an eclectic young crew, all with talent well developed beyond what I started with. Still, if you have desire and stick with it, cool things can happen. I very much enjoy the strategy and set-up of a marketing initiative. Seeing ideas in their infancy blossom to well thought out and executed completion is still as rewarding as ever. Who knows, maybe I’ll hang in here a little longer!
I’m definitely a country girl. I didn’t grow up in an actual town, village or hamlet. It was more like the middle of somewhere along Highway 28, surrounded by trees. Many thanks goes to my high school art teacher, Mr. Edwards, for inspiring me to choose this career path. With the realization that I actually could create art for a living, college lured me away from country life to the big city. Kitchener, to be exact, to study Graphic Design & Advertising at Conestoga College. Talk about beginning an adventure and a culture shock! Not staring at people with purple, green or some other wildly coloured hair was a bit of a challenge. City buses (lol thinking back), who knew they only stopped on the same side of the street as the bus stop sign!? Lesson learnt.
You never know unless you try, in my opinion, is a theory to live by. I love learning new things. I love finding solutions. I don’t like to say I can’t do something. I’d rather spend time figuring it out than giving up.
When asked what I do for a living some people just don’t understand when I say I’m a graphic designer. I think I may start telling them I take an idea, combine some letters, some pictures, undos, redos, move it left, right, up down, make it bigger, smaller, a different colour, centre it, no right justify it, make a few more tweaks and adjust it until it’s perfect! The pride and reward of seeing your idea come to life in this career are fascinating. Working in various industries has put my design skills to the test. Barbecue manufactures, storage solutions, beverages and snack foods all have their unique challenges. I even had my own little sign business for a while.
How did I end up here? Well, one day I happened to be searching the internet for my next graphic design adventure destination and up popped Palmer Marketing. Strangely enough the small town that was close by where I grew up was called Palmer Rapids. Hmm, coincidence or fate? I clicked the link and discovered a fun looking, talented, friendly bunch of people. The best part, these people do what I love to do in yet another industry providing a new set of unique challenges. I think it might have been fate or maybe it was applying my, you never know unless you try theory. I contacted PM and here I am taking an idea, moving it left, right, up down, making it, bigger, smaller, different colours, combining it with letters and pictures until it’s perfect and loving every minute.
Life’s adventures are all around us, you just have to grab onto them. While my city life certainly has it’s advantages, adventures and opportunities I’ll always be a country girl. There’s nothing quite like getting out on the four wheeler to travel some back country trails only to find yourself ripping through a glorious mud bog. Who can resist the quiet calm of a summer night by the bon fire that’s only interrupted periodically by the addition of More Gas causing massive flames! Or the delightful bragging rights when I catch a bigger bass than my husband. Oh don’t laugh too hard, he’s one up on me now with a bigger deer. Maybe next year I’ll settle the score or raise the bar a little higher. When snowmobile season is just around the corner, you can bet I keep an eye to the sky for those heavenly flakes of snow to come pelting down.
I love my work like I love summer. Why not? Summer is when I get to play my favorite sport—golf! Playing artist is a lot like playing golf. You need to be calm and cool under pressure if you ever hope to keep the ball in play; that’s rare for an artist. My best shots happen when I talk less and concentrate more; that’s not so rare for an artist.
I’m not worried about under-clubbing or over-clubbing. Not clubbing at all is what I fear most. Life or work, I’m the kind of person who throws everything I have at it, I was raised to dedicate myself to whatever I’m doing. You can have no complaints in life, so long as you take a swing. Sure, I may never be a great public speaker but, like mom said, it’s my creativity, originality, and resourcefulness that are my “gears”. LOL.
Golf has its bad days but not work. I know which clubs to bring to work. I always have my three favourites—flexibility, honesty, and sensibility. With these clubs, I’ll play a hard game with coworkers. I can even get a bit naughty. Cutting-edge design needs naughty. Proper people don’t break rules.
I design like there’s nothing but fairway. No roughs. No hazards… it’s all wide-open. When I nail that perfect shot, 300 yards of pure customer satisfaction, it’s like everyday is Friday. My feet and hands get itchy; I can’t wait to tee off. Best of all, there’s no winter on this course. Here at Palmer, it’s always summer.
I’ll always remember what my dad said to me —“If you want something you’ve never had before, try to do something you’ve never done before”.
I am the 8th of 9 children raised in Essex County outside of Windsor, Ontario. We lived on a gravel road, no sidewalks and our greatest adventures were in our own backyard. I still have friends I made in grade 1 and continue to stay in touch today. After graduating from the University of Windsor with a Bachelor of Commerce degree, I moved to the big city of Toronto and have worked most of my career in the printing industry. I got to know the folks at Palmer Marketing as a key supplier to them for over a decade.
I joined the PM team in early 2012 and I’ve learned a lot about the creative process and what makes it work. My administrative and management history helps keep things flowing and my extensive print background has proved very useful here…
To say the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree would be an understatement in my family; at least when it comes to picking a career path. There isn’t a person in my immediate family that hasn’t at some point or another worked in the IT field. I guess there’s something in our DNA that pulls us towards computers.
When I’m not battling my way through heaps of code I spend the majority of my down time exploring other creative endeavours. Playing and learning music has hobby of mine since high school, and I always jump at the chance to get some jam time in with friends and family.
//work motto
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