The Change Conversations blog is where changemakers find inspiration and insights on the power of mission-driven communication to create the change you want to see.
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Pat Heffernan: 8/26/22 10:00 AM
Whew! You’re exhausted. You’ve just finished a sprint to get your mobile-first site updated after Google’s latest Core Web Vitals algorithm change....
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Dave Bowers: 12/23/21 12:30 PM
Promotional products were a $20 billion dollar industry by 2014, with brands appearing on everything from award plaques to watches. By dollar volume...
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Karen Wilkinson: 1/21/21 10:00 AM
There are over 1 billion people around the world with disabilities, who have a combined spending power of approximately $6 trillion. This includes...
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Intern Blogger: 4/9/20 11:15 AM
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, “7.1 million openings were available in February 2019, but only 5.7 million hires were made.” When there...
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Intern Blogger: 3/12/20 11:45 AM
More and more companies are wrestling with the questions: Should your brand take a stand? What are the potential benefits? What are the risks? How do...
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Dave Bowers: 11/28/19 11:30 AM
A company blog helps you connect with customers and prospects by providing useful content that can be found through search and promotion. Its many...
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Pat Heffernan: 11/14/19 11:10 AM
How can you quickly and safely create the images you need for your blogging and social media efforts and avoid common copyright risks? Unless your...
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Karen Wilkinson: 10/24/19 12:30 PM
Consistency is king when it comes to using your branding colors across all mediums, including your website. But designing for legibility and...
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Pat Heffernan: 10/10/19 11:45 AM
Consistent values-based communication. I believe everyone benefits when a mission-driven business or nonprofit focuses on words, messages, issues,...
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Hiro Soga: 9/26/19 11:48 AM
When you think branding, what comes to mind? Logos, colors, the name of your company, your company tagline — but how about sound or audio? As the...
![7 Important steps to launch your new website [checklist]](https://www.marketing-partners.com/hubfs/BLOG/08-August-2019/Dave_MPI%20Blog%20Post_8-22-19.jpg)
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Dave Bowers: 8/22/19 11:00 AM
As the website owner, you want to be sure your investment in developing a new website is going to improve your brand awareness and return on your...
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Karen Wilkinson: 7/25/19 11:43 AM
The current wave of infographic usage is only gaining momentum. From social media to corporate reports and even the evening news, you’re seeing these...
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Hiro Soga: 6/27/19 11:42 AM
Images, videos, sound bites, and other media are great ways to cut through the clutter online for small businesses or nonprofits. But a common mishap...
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Pat Heffernan: 6/13/19 11:21 AM
The more you know, the harder it is to remove the curse of knowledge from your writing. After years of education and experience in your field, you...
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Dave Bowers: 5/23/19 1:00 PM
Considering a new website? Your goal is a stunning and hard-working new website in a process as smooth as possible. Miscommunication or conflict with...
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Intern Blogger: 5/9/19 11:42 AM
You may think your local nonprofit cannot use flashy campaign tools to set your organization apart. You may think those tools are for businesses and...
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Intern Blogger: 4/25/19 11:03 AM
Do you need a high-quality video for your small business? Don't hesitate because you worry about breaking the bank. If your business has a fan or two...
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Pat Heffernan: 4/11/19 11:50 AM
Last week in a client meeting I was asked a string of marketing questions that I have been asked many times before. “Is that a good open rate, a good...
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Pat Heffernan: 3/14/19 11:52 AM
It often happens this way. First I hear a book author on NPR talking about an interesting subject, then the issue comes up with friends, and then...
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Hiro Soga: 2/28/19 11:38 AM
Change Convos · Creating Quality Video Content on a Budget Here’s the bottom line. If you’re not making online video content for your business,...
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Pat Heffernan: 2/14/19 11:33 AM
Your business or nonprofit faces copyright dangers on both sides of the copyright law: For violating someone else’s copyright, resulting in hefty...
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Dave Bowers: 1/24/19 11:40 AM
We’re nearly a month into the new year, so it’s time to put into action a new year’s resolution for your website and blog. Your website is the...
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Pat Heffernan: 1/10/19 11:43 AM
Wuss isn’t a word I use often, but during my drive home from the holidays it came to my mind fleetingly as an appropriate self-description. I started...
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Hiro Soga: 10/25/18 10:50 AM
So why are podcasts your next best marketing tool? Not only is the number of podcast listeners on the rise, they are engaged in the content. And...
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Since making the switch from a public sector marketing department to a private sector marketing agency, I’ve learned a thing or two from both sides...
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Dave Bowers: 9/27/18 11:43 AM
Your company website is the center of your brand identity, marketing, sales, and customer relations. More than 80% of shoppers do online research...
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Pat Heffernan: 9/13/18 11:43 AM
The strategy of framing messages for change has never seemed more important — or more difficult. Never more important because pressing issues like...
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Intern Blogger: 8/23/18 11:50 AM
Generating quality website traffic is critical to raising awareness for your mission-driven business. With search engine companies frequently...
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Intern Blogger: 8/9/18 11:37 AM
As a novice to the business world, I had no idea that there were so many marketing research standards and ethics in place. I have learned that...
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Blogging, tweeting, pinning, posting – you know it's essential, but what do you do when you have reluctant marketers on your staff who are...
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Pat Heffernan: 7/12/18 11:05 AM
Know that you are not alone. You are definitely not the only one puzzled by distinguishing between the terms content marketing and inbound marketing....
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Hiro Soga: 6/28/18 9:30 AM
Long gone are the days when you only had a few social media accounts to worry about. Now there’s an ocean of information and options to choose from....
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Pat Heffernan: 6/14/18 11:50 AM
Yes, you read that correctly: How NOT to use customer demographics in your marketing. In an attempt to make research-based marketing decisions, many...
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Free swag! There's nothing like it to get people's attention at an event ... and there's nothing like that sinking feeling you get when you see those...
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Dave Bowers: 5/10/18 11:00 AM
Later this month, on May 25, the GDPR data protection and privacy law goes into effect. GDPR, or General Data Protection Regulation, is a set of...
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Intern Blogger: 4/26/18 10:50 AM
You know that “big donors” come from older generations. But younger generations are just as important. Your nonprofit needs to invest in the future:...
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Pat Heffernan: 4/12/18 11:00 AM
Mission-driven organizations can be surprised to suddenly find themselves struggling with employee recruitment and retention. (Wasn't it just...
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Dave Bowers: 3/22/18 10:10 AM
If you’re not alert, it’s easier than ever to be snookered these days. You are trying to reduce your environmental impact and so you specify your new...
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Dave Bowers: 3/8/18 9:58 PM
Contests and sweepstakes are great ways of generating interest and expanding your reach to a target audience. If you want to increase web traffic,...
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Pat Heffernan: 3/8/18 10:30 AM
The power of words, labels, language and frames is often a popular topic at the water cooler and lunch table here, but it has been top-of-mind...
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Want to gain traction in the early stages of the customer’s journey? Here’s a tip: Step out of your shoes. Your audience wants to interact with...
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Pat Heffernan: 2/8/18 10:00 AM
Thoughts on the psychology of words, word use, pronouns, and social issues have been scurrying across my brain lately. Not that you can’t find me...
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Pat Heffernan: 1/25/18 11:57 AM
Do you feel that? That tugging sensation on your heart? You’re not sure why, but as serious, and as focused, and as grownup as you are, you likely...
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Dave Bowers: 1/25/18 10:00 AM
I wrote about this last in 2010 when unemployment was near ten percent and competition for work was fierce and cutthroat. And while a lot has changed...
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You know your stuff. You could blog about what you do ‘til the cows come home. The problem is that there's never enough time to do it all well. What...
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Tara Pereira: 1/11/18 10:00 AM
At the beginning of a new year, it is natural to want to set resolutions both personally, and professionally for your organization. We all start out...
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Pat Heffernan: 12/28/17 10:00 AM
I am worried. As I wrote earlier, part of creating a persuasive change message is to document and describe the problem before offering a solution...
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Pat Heffernan: 12/21/17 8:25 AM
One day as I flicked through a group of RSS and Twitter feeds for a client in education, I came across a sketch that made me chuckle in recognition....
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Tara Pereira: 12/14/17 10:00 AM
"71% of internet users will access social networking sites regularly this year." source One of the great challenges and great truths of social media...
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Intern Blogger: 12/7/17 10:05 AM
As a business owner, you most likely already know how critical it is to be active and visible online. Google prioritizes mobile friendly sites over...
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Dave Bowers: 11/30/17 10:30 AM
Marketing, like many other worthwhile activities, is a team venture. And every effective team needs a coach, rules of the game, and a common goal....
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Pat Heffernan: 11/23/17 10:00 AM
Rich metrics are one of the delights of implementing an integrated inbound marketing program. Inbound’s ability to track the history of an...
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Time is funny. It flies. It can be saved and wasted. When you’re working on a design and content project with lots of moving parts and people, time...
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Pat Heffernan: 11/9/17 10:05 AM
Making sure that your website reaches and communicates effectively to everyone requires attention to many factors—design, language, search...
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Pat Heffernan: 11/2/17 11:42 AM
Language shapes the way we think, and determines what we can think about. —Benjamin Lee Whorf I can no longer count on my fingers the number of times...
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Tara Pereira: 10/19/17 10:04 AM
Do you know the secret to conducting a good video interview? Whether you are gathering video testimonials for your website or developing an...
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Pat Heffernan: 10/12/17 10:00 AM
If ‘best-kept secret’ is a phrase you’ve ever heard used to describe your nonprofit, you are not alone. Perhaps it’s just the popularity of the...
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Pat Heffernan: 10/5/17 2:30 PM
Brand and branding are terms you hear used and misused daily in marketing and advertising. Once terms used only by those working in the field or by...
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Brad Pettengill: 9/28/17 10:00 AM
Logo, Corporate Identity or Brand — What’s the difference? When a company begins to consider ways to visually represent themselves, their product,...
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Tara Pereira: 9/21/17 10:00 AM
Saying you need video for your business is kind of like saying you need a website. Both are general terms for an essential tool that can mean a lot...
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Pat Heffernan: 9/14/17 10:00 AM
Do you worry about saying bad words? I know sometimes I feel as if I spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about how to avoid bad words and...
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Dave Bowers: 9/7/17 10:00 AM
If you have a website without the HTTPS protocol, you should have received an email recently telling you that Google Chrome will show a security...
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Brad Pettengill: 8/31/17 10:00 AM
It’s a familiar problem. You have invested a great deal of time and money to create a strong visual identity for your mission-driven organization....
Tara Pereira: 8/28/17 10:18 AM
More than ever before, nonprofits need to integrate video content into annual marketing campaigns. Every day there are new opportunities and...
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Tara Pereira: 8/24/17 10:00 AM
No nonprofit can afford to produce a video that is not inline with its marketing goals and outreach plans. The more your nonprofit team can lay out a...
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Dave Bowers: 8/18/17 10:00 AM
We build websites. It’s not all we do, but it is a big part of the services we offer to clients large and small. Often during the process we complete...
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Intern Blogger: 8/17/17 11:00 AM
Ephemeral content, which lasts only a short time before disappearing, is on the rise and being led by the popularity of Snapchat. Other platforms...
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Brad Pettengill: 8/17/17 10:56 AM
As a boy scout in the early seventies, I walked door-to-door soliciting support for S.O.A.R., Save Our American Resources, in the form of money...
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Pat Heffernan: 8/10/17 4:45 PM
While officially this is the second in a series of posts about changing minds and message framing, you may be interested because it can also be...
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Dave Bowers: 8/3/17 10:00 AM
Relying on spreadsheets to keep track of your organization's donors, volunteers, and other contacts gets tiresome and ineffective quickly. But many...
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Pat Heffernan: 8/1/17 10:04 AM
Signs abound of a growing sustainability language disconnect between marketers’ communications and what consumer and business customers understand,...
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Brad Pettengill: 7/27/17 10:00 AM
For her recent birthday, my wife wanted to wake up in an exotic location. She wanted to experience Morocco, despite the warnings from friends and...
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Pat Heffernan: 7/13/17 10:00 AM
Yes, it takes a lot of work to create a stellar piece of content today. And there are no shortcuts. You need to develop the content strategy idea, do...
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Pat Heffernan: 7/6/17 10:00 AM
I expect What’s In It For Me (WIIFM), to be crystal clear. And your customers do too.
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Brad Pettengill: 6/29/17 10:00 AM
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Tara Pereira: 6/22/17 1:00 PM
Having clear communication and a solid creative process between agency team members and your nonprofit management team is imperative. It is important...
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Pat Heffernan: 6/15/17 10:00 AM
If you’re like most change communicators I know, you spend quite a bit of time keeping up on what’s known and what’s new in communication, persuasion...
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Dave Bowers: 6/8/17 10:30 AM
What is a landing page? A landing page is simply the website page where your visitors land after they type in or click a link. The link can be on a...
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Tara Pereira: 5/25/17 10:00 AM
Is your nonprofit embarking on an outreach campaign focused on a new community? Does your government agency need message training on a new subject,...
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Pat Heffernan: 5/18/17 12:00 PM
You may have heard the terms "paid, owned, earned media" bandied about recently and been curious. You want to know more—understanding where and how...
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Dave Bowers: 5/11/17 10:00 AM
Good prepress file preparation takes time. In the era of digital design, prepress work looks deceptively easy, but making sure your files are print...
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Pat Heffernan: 5/4/17 10:00 AM
For many years the message triangle has been one of the tools I use most often for clients and for myself. Whenever a major speech, news event or...
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Tara Pereira: 4/27/17 10:00 AM
Video is a very effective form of communication and can be especially powerful in nonprofit marketing and impact storytelling. One third of all...
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Intern Blogger: 4/20/17 10:00 AM
You sit down at your computer to develop an infographic and couldn’t be more excited to share it with your mission driven audience. Then you suddenly...
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Intern Blogger: 4/13/17 1:45 PM
In a 2016 study conducted by RadiumOne, it was reported that 84% of online sharing was now being conducted via ‘dark social,’ with Facebook coming in...
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Pat Heffernan: 4/6/17 10:00 AM
We were ‘talking shop’ over breakfast recently, as business people are wont to do. After several mentions of ‘collaborative this’ or ‘collaborative...
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Dave Bowers: 3/30/17 10:00 AM
Why do you need to know about image resolution? If you are ever going to print something, put a graphic on the web, or create a PowerPoint...
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Brad Pettengill: 3/23/17 10:00 AM
A reader recently responded to my blog post Typeface Choice: Ask yourself Three Questions, by raising an important series of questions on changing...
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Tara Pereira: 3/16/17 10:00 AM
It is always interesting to me to watch the ebb and flow of major events on social media. It is natural to see themes on our Facebook feeds as the...
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Pat Heffernan: 3/9/17 10:00 AM
When you believe in a cause, it becomes your baby, and one of the hardest things to do is let go of its name. For decades now I have been writing,...
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Dave Bowers: 3/2/17 10:00 AM
The sales dynamic continues to change, and today's buyers are better informed and further along in their decision process before they first reach out...
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Brad Pettengill: 2/23/17 10:00 AM
You need visual impact for your upcoming, mission-driven campaign or promotion. Which will work harder for you— illustration or photography? The...
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Tara Pereira: 2/16/17 1:00 PM
It It has been the “year of video” for at least 6 years now in the marketing world. But 2017 really might be the year when nonprofits should take...
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Pat Heffernan: 2/9/17 10:00 AM
If you are seeking positive change, you know your language choice matters. Your nightmare is to inadvertently use a word that triggers a frame in...
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Dave Bowers: 2/2/17 3:30 PM
You know your business or organization needs a website. And, you probably have one (or maybe more than one). But does your website reach your...
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Brad Pettengill: 1/26/17 10:30 AM
Whether you are marketing a product to improve the environment using triple bottom line principles, working on a campaign to increase awareness of...
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Tara Pereira: 1/19/17 11:15 AM
Email marketing can be more effective than social for nurturing and engaging your base. We’ve written about the value of a clean email list,...
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Pat Heffernan: 1/12/17 10:00 AM
You’ve read the statistics about the power of visuals (especially infographics). You know visual content is more likely to have an impact, to be...
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Pat Heffernan: 1/5/17 10:00 AM
Which Change Conversations blog posts were most popular in calendar year 2016? The numbers tell us what readers liked, and shared, and commented on,...
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Tara Pereira: 12/15/16 10:00 AM
Being interviewed by the media for the first time can be nerve wracking. Whether it is a print interview or a broadcast interview, you are being...
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Intern Blogger: 12/8/16 10:00 AM
In today's social media marketing world, it's hard to stand out. It's even harder to stand out and connect with your community at the same time. One...
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Intern Blogger: 12/1/16 10:00 AM
With the current podcast boom brought on by the likes of Serial and This American Life, it seems like there is a podcast for everyone and every brand...
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Tara Pereira: 11/10/16 10:00 AM
This is my second year attending Inbound, the annual HubSpot extravaganza (also known as a conference). The workshops I attended last year focused on...
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Dave Bowers: 10/27/16 10:00 AM
You know email can be an effective marketing tool. Email marketing averages an ROI of $38 for every $1 spent. (DMA National Client Email Report 2015)...
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Brad Pettengill: 10/20/16 10:54 AM
So you’ve decided to invest in a multi-faceted, multi-channel marketing campaign. Your presence, message and branding will appear in many...
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Tara Pereira: 10/13/16 10:00 AM
I just returned from a trip to Italy. (A little envy is understandable.) Travel can be a great way to see another country’s view of design and...
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Pat Heffernan: 10/6/16 10:00 AM
Crisis communication is not something I really want our clients to gain experience with. But no matter what your industry or sector, you have at...
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Brad Pettengill: 9/15/16 11:00 AM
Why should your nonprofit invest in good design? Your mission is pressing, the needs are great — why spend money on design when it seems like it...
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Tara Pereira: 9/8/16 11:00 AM
For a lot of us, back-to-school means change. Change of schedule, change of traffic patterns, but I like to think of September as an opportunity to...
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Pat Heffernan: 9/1/16 11:00 AM
Much as we love the warm, natural tones of the stone wall framing Marketing Partners’ open office, its greatest value is as a daily reminder of the...
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Dave Bowers: 8/25/16 11:00 AM
Ok, I’m a big fan of advertising. When used correctly advertising is a good way to promote your brand, service, or product. But advertising can’t do...
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Tara Pereira: 8/4/16 11:00 AM
If you think about the time and resources needed to develop and produce a fantastic video for your nonprofit, it makes sense to repurpose and...
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Dave Bowers: 7/28/16 11:00 AM
Advertising works. Businesses get results with strategic advertising. Why else would so many businesses spend so much money if it didn’t? And big...
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Brad Pettengill: 7/21/16 11:00 AM
Whether you’re creating a new page design for your website, an online ad, print brochure or an infographic, many of the same design principles apply....
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Tara Pereira: 7/14/16 11:00 AM
You’ve been planning your next event for a while now — finding a location, building a schedule and making sure your speakers are ready to go. A lot...
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Pat Heffernan: 7/7/16 11:30 AM
The other day, as we pondered our (heavy) work plan together for the upcoming six weeks, a startup mission-driven client asked if there were...
Tara Pereira: 7/4/16 10:00 AM
Summer is the perfect season to plan an event or fundraiser for your mission-driven organization. Who wouldn't want to spend time outdoors for a good...
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Brad Pettengill: 6/30/16 11:30 AM
Last week I ran across a New York Times article detailing one marketing research company’s process to determine the ugliest color in the world. The...
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Dave Bowers: 6/27/16 10:00 AM
Every business or non-profit needs smooth orderly processes to be successful. Lean manufacturers make a science of refining every process. The big...
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Dave Bowers: 6/23/16 11:00 AM
You’ve got the photo you want, so just post it – right? Not so fast!
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Pat Heffernan: 6/16/16 10:00 AM
It is easy to feel conflicted when you're marketing for good. Many nonprofits and public agencies feel the tension. On one hand, you know your...
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Sally Kieny: 6/13/16 10:00 AM
The changing media landscape and time spent on the web has turned us into consumers of bits and bytes of information. We often don't have time (or...
2 min read
Tara Pereira: 6/9/16 10:30 AM
Email marketing is a a great way to engage and to nurture your community and contacts. But you need to take care of a very important anchor that is...
1 min read
Pat Heffernan: 6/2/16 1:00 PM
With the trees in full leaf on the hillsides, lush and green are the signs of May in Vermont. Abundance is an apt term for the fodder published last...
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Dave Bowers: 5/26/16 10:00 AM
"Use a picture. It's worth a thousand words."- Arthur Brisbane, newspaper editor Images are a must. They draw interest, convey emotion, and amplify...
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Brad Pettengill: 5/19/16 10:00 AM
The last time you strolled through a tradeshow you probably made a mental note about those booths and displays that were really engaging and those...
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Tara Pereira: 5/12/16 10:00 AM
Video seems to be everywhere these days, but not all of it is great quality. Look out for these five myths that can sabatoge your next video before...
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Pat Heffernan: 5/5/16 10:00 AM
April showers found us seeking a higher proportion of fresh, new and fun links than our usual mix of substantive fodder for serious thinkers and...
3 min read
Intern Blogger: 4/28/16 8:00 AM
The Change Conversations blog has covered how to make Twitter work for you in previous posts, but today I want to look in more detail at how each...
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Intern Blogger: 4/21/16 8:00 AM
A study conducted by Harvard Business Review about inner work life and performance found people are more productive and creative when their work...
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Intern Blogger: 4/14/16 12:30 PM
When you are given a document to read or you are emailed a newsletter containing information to keep you up-to-date, what is going to keep you...
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Pat Heffernan: 4/7/16 1:28 PM
Spring has been doggedly stubborn about arriving this year. The rollercoaster weather finds us swapping winter coats for garden rakes within a...
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Dave Bowers: 3/31/16 10:00 AM
You know nonprofit organizations need websites just as small businesses do, but you may be surprised to learn nonprofit sites can be more complex and...
5 min read
Brad Pettengill: 3/24/16 10:00 AM
You're considering an image for your upcoming campaign, but you have an uneasy feeling about its content, tone and style. Perhaps establishing...
2 min read
Tara Pereira: 3/17/16 10:00 AM
We all can agree that social media marketing can sometimes seem like a beast that is always hungry. Sure it can be a lot of fun and it is always...
3 min read
Pat Heffernan: 3/10/16 11:00 AM
It is every marketer or writer’s nightmare. After years of carefully planned and executed content strategy, your recipe for creating content is...
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Pat Heffernan: 3/3/16 10:00 AM
It’s just about sugaring season — the annual Vermont ritual when the sweet sap of Sugar Maples warms and runs out of the taps, a time for learning...
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Tara Pereira: 2/18/16 10:00 AM
Video storytelling can be incorporated into your nonprofit's marketing strategy in many ways. Testimonial videos and case studies are based on the...
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Intern Blogger: 2/11/16 10:00 AM
Maintaining a successful social media presence can be a daunting task — juggling your profiles on multiple platforms while keeping pace with the...
2 min read
Pat Heffernan: 2/4/16 6:09 PM
This is a little bit of a cheat because our five favorite posts for change makers and communicators were actually published over a six-week period...
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Dave Bowers: 1/28/16 10:00 AM
Inbound marketing is no longer a new concept. Even marketers and other business leaders not currently practicing inbound or content marketing tend to...
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Tara Pereira: 1/21/16 10:00 AM
Lately, I’ve been thinking about using digital storytelling for change and how we think about connecting and promoting behavior change using...
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Pat Heffernan: 1/14/16 10:00 AM
Much about the way we work with nonprofits and mission-driven organizations has changed in the more than two decades I have been leading this firm....
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Sally Kieny: 1/7/16 10:00 AM
Fresh off the season for pretty packages, I thought I’d share some tips for creating nonprofit promotion packages that will help you build awareness...
2 min read
Pat Heffernan: 12/31/15 10:00 AM
Our readers have spoken. These 10 blog posts were our most read and most shared blog posts of the past year. Here's what you thought was awesome in...
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Brad Pettengill: 12/24/15 10:00 AM
There will always be a place for snapshot-quality photos, typically in testimonials and/or social media where professional polish can work against...
2 min read
Tara Pereira: 12/17/15 10:00 AM
In an earlier post National Brands: how to engage and market locally in Vermont, I wrote about the importance of national brands understanding local...
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Intern Blogger: 12/10/15 10:00 AM
The U.S. Census Bureau reported in June of 2015 that Millennials are now the largest generation, outnumbering even the Baby Boomers. Thanks to the...
2 min read
Pat Heffernan: 12/3/15 10:00 AM
Let's give thanks for our five favorite posts for change makers and communicators from around the web in November. And read on to discover the top...
2 min read
Sally Kieny: 11/26/15 10:00 AM
It doesn’t matter what type of business or sector you work in—nonprofit, for profit, consulting, B2B, B2C, government, you name it—maintaining a...
2 min read
Dave Bowers: 11/19/15 10:00 AM
Of course the short answer to your question about the cost of an important new creative project is “It depends.” But that’s not a particularly...
4 min read
Brad Pettengill: 11/12/15 10:00 AM
Recently my wife and I traveled to Ireland for our son's destination wedding. Here are a few observations made with my marketing, design and...
2 min read
Pat Heffernan: 11/5/15 10:00 AM
Let's recap our five favorite posts for change makers and communicators from around the web in October. As if to keep up with the vibrant colors of...
3 min read
Pat Heffernan: 10/29/15 10:00 AM
Everyone tells you that you need to research your potential customers, but no one tells you much about how to do it. Whether you are in a small...
2 min read
Sally Kieny: 10/22/15 10:00 AM
In previous posts, we’ve shared the basics of event planning: how to make your event newsworthy and a top 10 list for every event. In this post,...
1 min read
Steve McIntyre: 10/15/15 10:20 AM
I've ben around long enough to remember when terms like "SEO" and "writing" didn't appear together in the same sentence. This is one of the hallmarks...
2 min read
Pat Heffernan: 10/13/15 9:00 AM
In today’s world of big data, actionable data remains rare — especially for the small and midsize businesses (SMBs) whose limited marketing resources...
2 min read
Tara Pereira: 10/8/15 1:27 PM
Lately, whenever I have free moment I’ve been listening to podcasts. Just like any other type of media content, digital audio segments can be funny,...
1 min read
Pat Heffernan: 10/1/15 10:00 AM
Fall in Vermont (or should I say autumn?) is chock full of delightful distractions, but that doesn’t mean you have to miss out on special treats....
2 min read
Tara Pereira: 9/24/15 10:00 AM
Going to a Hubpot marketing conference for the first time can be be pretty exciting– the disco lights, the vibe, the 14,000 creative smart people all...
2 min read
Sally Kieny: 9/17/15 10:00 AM
I had the opportunity to take off my “marketing hat” this summer as I took a leave of absence from work. But in reality, we marketers never really...
1 min read
Dave Bowers: 9/10/15 10:00 AM
In my last post, Seeing Opportunities for Your Website Using Analytics, I showed a few key reports from Google Analytics to see how traffic enters,...
2 min read
Pat Heffernan: 9/7/15 10:00 AM
Even in Vermont it can get sizzling hot as summer ends, but thankfully cooler evening temperatures return just as the annual...
5 min read
Brad Pettengill: 9/3/15 10:00 AM
A few weeks ago I spent the day in our garden, playing catch-up. After 9 straight hours of weeding, clipping, digging, mounding and watering, I...
4 min read
Pat Heffernan: 8/31/15 1:00 PM
Yes, it may be time to raise your game as a digital marketer. Oh sure, you’ve probably developed some form of the trifecta of website, email list and...
2 min read
Tara Pereira: 8/27/15 10:00 AM
This week my kids went back to school and I started thinking about the importance of writing fundamentals in school and more specifically in business...
3 min read
Intern Blogger: 8/20/15 12:00 PM
Vermonters have always taken the disruptive, “beat the band,” approach, or so we believe. The small, motivated, Green Mountain State prides itself on...
4 min read
Pat Heffernan: 8/17/15 10:00 AM
Planning an event can be a daunting effort. Any missteps can have critical repercussions for your mission and your brand down the line, so it is...
5 min read
Intern Blogger: 8/13/15 3:30 PM
Is your business using Twitter? Maybe not, because you've heard tending to a business Twitter account takes lots of time or money. Finding links,...
1 min read
Steve McIntyre: 8/6/15 11:30 AM
Canonical. The fact that I had to look up how to pronounce it, rather than the definition, is a little comical, which is how it’s pronounced, (albeit...
2 min read
Pat Heffernan: 8/3/15 10:00 AM
Summer in Vermont is chock full of outdoor distractions, but that doesn’t mean you have to miss out. To help you catch up, here are our monthly top...
4 min read
Intern Blogger: 7/30/15 12:00 PM
It’s frustrating to be a small business advertiser or nonprofit advocate today, especially if yours is a visually driven world. The return on your...
2 min read
Tara Pereira: 7/23/15 10:00 AM
Helping your community emotionally engage with you is a great indicator of marketing success. Building an emotional connection can take many forms....
2 min read
Brad Pettengill: 7/16/15 10:00 AM
You need strong images for your marketing campaign and you've decided to use photography as the best way to evoke an emotional response, build your...
2 min read
Dave Bowers: 7/9/15 10:00 AM
As marketers, we strive to drive traffic to your website where a wealth of information about your company, organization, products, or events is just...
5 min read
Pat Heffernan: 7/6/15 12:30 PM
Last year may have been declared the “Golden Age of Podcasts”, in no small part due to the run away popularity of the weekly NPR podcast Serial but...
1 min read
Pat Heffernan: 7/2/15 1:30 PM
It’s summertime in Vermont. Time for sunny days and warm weather. And time to catch up with friends over a great meal for lively conversation. Here...
3 min read
Tara Pereira: 6/25/15 10:00 AM
For national brands and organizations, marketing locally and engaging a target community can be challenging without extensive preparation and...
2 min read
Pat Heffernan: 6/22/15 1:55 PM
Trying to help your team keep up with the incredible rate of marketing change? And keep on top of your daily work, and keep your brain open to...
1 min read
Brad Pettengill: 6/18/15 10:00 AM
"A picture is worth a thousand words" has never been more relevant. Cave paintings thousands of years old got a simple message across, but now you...
2 min read
Steve McIntyre: 6/11/15 10:00 AM
Image rollovers have been around since the days of the Flying Toasters, but back then it took some moderate skill in JavaScript to get them to work....
4 min read
Pat Heffernan: 6/8/15 10:00 AM
Large-scale social change requires a lot of collaboration—with multiple nonprofits, values-led businesses, and public agencies. And the bigger and...
1 min read
Pat Heffernan: 6/4/15 10:00 AM
June is here and that means that summer will soon be officially in full swing! Summer means our indoor-outdoor time allotment shifts, but there’s...
3 min read
Tara Pereira: 5/28/15 10:00 AM
When you think of being on camera and getting the word out about your mission, you may think initially of public relations and participating in a...
4 min read
Pat Heffernan: 5/18/15 11:45 AM
Think your communication is always bias-free? Think that you are equally respectful, inclusive and welcoming with a diverse range of people — those...
3 min read
Dave Bowers: 5/14/15 10:00 AM
If you fall behind on your website security and maintenance, you're all but asking to be hacked. (Most hacked sites are behind on publicly announced...
2 min read
Intern Blogger: 5/7/15 10:00 AM
Over the course of my internship at Marketing Partners, I’ve learned about a variety of different topics and acquired some important real-world...
2 min read
Pat Heffernan: 5/4/15 10:00 AM
“Skills can be taught; values cannot.” That old saying rings true, but growing your own skilled marketers takes lots of time, energy and money....
3 min read
Tara Pereira: 4/30/15 10:00 AM
The power of visual storytelling can be compelling and immediately engaging. In today’s marketing world, strong visuals are a necessary element in a...
2 min read
Intern Blogger: 4/27/15 10:00 AM
"In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare,...
3 min read
Brad Pettengill: 4/23/15 10:00 AM
Knowing how to optimize photos for your mobile-friendly site has never been more important. Accessing the Internet with mobile devices, such as smart...
1 min read
Steve McIntyre: 4/16/15 10:00 AM
If you’re wondering whether your website is mobile friendly, Google made a Mobile Friendly Website Testing Tool that you can use to find out. The...
3 min read
Pat Heffernan: 4/13/15 10:00 AM
You’re not Alice. You couldn’t be more different. You want to create mission-driven change, to change minds, motivate action, build a movement....
3 min read
Sally Kieny: 4/9/15 10:00 AM
While we often write about social media in this blog and how businesses and organizations can use it strategically as part of an integrated marketing...
4 min read
Pat Heffernan: 3/9/15 10:22 AM
Are you thinking like I’m thinking that it is getting murky out there? My fog meter is registering an increase in befuddling language about sponsored...
1 min read
Pat Heffernan: 7/28/14 10:15 AM
It’s a scene I’ve lived over and over again. Deep into a positioning work session while I’m probing for what you believe distinguishes your triple...
2 min read
Pat Heffernan: 7/21/14 10:55 AM
In my mind, words and language have always been important. (No surprise.) I delighted in the increased attention to inclusive language in...
2 min read
Pat Heffernan: 7/14/14 11:00 AM
This may not be going where you think it is. That is, it’s not going there if you’re thinking I’m referring to social media marketing or so-called...
2 min read
Sally Kieny: 6/5/14 12:00 AM
Inbound marketing could be considered part of the new marketing-speak. We’ve written before about the importance of keeping your communications...
2 min read
At Marketing Partners, we’ve worked on dozens of social awareness and behavior change campaigns. (Secretly, they are my favorite kind of campaign!)...
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