Title: Senior Strategist

Education: BA in Professional Writing from Carnegie Mellon University, MBA with Marketing concentration from Wake Forest University

Hobbies: Yoga, cooking, exploring Chicago, reading, watching football, (very very) beginner knitting projects

Favorite TV Show: True Blood

Favorite Singer/Band: Changes daily – lately I’ve been obsessed with the Amelie movie soundtrack.

Favorite Book: I recently read the original Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote and I liked it just as much as the movie.

Favorite Sports Teams: Pittsburgh Steelers

Greatest Accomplishment: Surviving b-school with minimal accounting and statistics experience going in.

PR/Marketing Advice: Simplify your message.

Twitter handle: @Rachel990306

Position at Zer0 to 5ive: Senior Strategist

Education: BS in Communications, Minor in Business Marketing, Pennsylvania State University

Hobbies: Running, reading, shopping

Favorite TV Show: Non-”reality”, current shows I love are Modern Family, The Good Wife, Revenge, Mad Men, The Office, Up all night, Greys Anatomy. I still watch, and love, the reruns of Sex and the City, Seinfeld, Friends, 90210, The OC (gotta love Soapnet!).

Favorite Singer/Band: I love anything – and it depends on my mood and what I’m doing. If I’m working out, I’ll listen to Beyonce, Adele, Rhianna, Brittney Spears, Katy Perry – almost all top 40. I also love John Mayer, Jack Johnson, Dave Matthews, Kings of Leon, the Killers, the Black Keys, and Mumford and Sons. I do enjoy listening to classics like Van Morrison, the Beatles, Frank Sinatra…my iPod is VERY random.

Favorite Book: the last book I read that I would recommend is “A Stolen Life”, a Jaycee Duggar story – her strength is amazing. I also loved “My Sisters Keeper” and all of the “Dragon Tattoo” books.

Favorite Sports Teams: Phillies or PSU football – tie.

Greatest Accomplishment: Becoming a mom

PR/Marketing Advice: Always keep your “stretch goals” in mind – for anything. Also, there is always room to learn more.

Twitter handle: @kathleenfusco

HTML email marketing campaigns are a great way to engage existing customers, partners or new prospects with your brand. They are also one of the most cost-effective channels to promote an event, share content, or highlight just about anything your audience will find intriguing.

However, there is much more that goes into a great email marketing campaign than just blasting out some copy and photos to a list – it takes strategic thinking, timeliness and creativity.

Here are 10 tips to help you create a successful email campaign:

1. Determine the objective of the email – it is important that before any creative is laid out or content is drafted that everyone truly understand the overall objective of the email campaign. For example: Who is the audience? What do we want them to do? How do we want to position the company? What is the purpose of the email? What results do we expect to get from this?
2. Create a targeted list – once the audience for the campaign is finalized, you must develop a targeted list of recipients to maximize the success of your campaign. An email to people who do not have any interest in the topic of your campaign will immediately hit the trash bin and diminish your brand. Also, never add recipients to your email list who have not “opted in” to receive emails from your company, as this is a violation of anti-spam laws.
3. Develop engaging copy – once a person opens your email, you only have 5-6 seconds to get your message across. The email content should be easy to read, concise and clearly explain how the reader will benefit from whatever it is you’re promoting. Bullets, numbers or any type of outline form are a great way to clearly organize your key points. Your total word count should be approximately 200 words.
4. Have a strong call to action – every email should have a call to action at the top, middle and bottom of the email that can be easily picked out. They can be buttons, text links or both, but all calls to action should link directly to a coordinating website, landing page, Twitter page, Facebook page, etc. Example calls to action – Register Now, Sign Up Here, Learn More, Like Us or Contact Us!
5. Go easy on the images – not all email providers automatically show photos within the body of the email, so it is important to make your email readable without the recipient having “images enabled” (a manual preference). If an email is heavily image-based, especially in the header, the entire message will be lost if the images can’t be viewed. Two or three images in the body of your email are enough to break up the text and add some visual excitement.
6. Add social sharing buttons – if your company is utilizing social media, your email should clearly highlight which channels (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn) you are using. Social sharing buttons, typically in the footer of the email, give readers a convenient way to share your content and resonates beyond the email channel.
7. Compose clever, condensed subject lines – the first thing a person will see in your email will be the subject line – so make it good! Subject lines should be between 40 – 50 characters and should cleverly sum up what your email is about or engage the recipient to want to read more.
8. Avoid spam words – everyone’s spam filter is different, but it is important to avoid certain symbols and words in your subject line to keep your email out of the recipients spam box. Some spam symbols and words include: “free,” “winner,” “click here,” “cost,”, “?,” “$,” and many more.
9. Distribute at the right time – the best days to send out an email is Tuesday – Thursday, any time between 10 am and 3 pm. You do not want your email to be lost in the Monday morning masses or forgotten about on Friday afternoon – so it is best to avoid those days completely. Also, emails should be distributed one to two times a week. If you are promoting a webinar or an event, be sure to start your email campaign 3 to 4 weeks before the actual event to give recipients ample time to RSVP.
10. Analyze campaign data – if you are sending out your email through a distribution system, it’s imperative that you take a look at the data available after each email blast and at the conclusion of the campaign. What was the click through rate? How many opens did it have? What was the delivery rate? A good click through rate ranges from 10 percent to 20 percent. You should also test out multiple subject lines to see which has the best results. This information (good or bad) will help you tweak your emails to have an even more successful campaign the next time around.

Email campaigns don’t necessarily show results overnight; it could take 6 – 12 months of trial and error before you determine what delivers the best results. But with proper analysis and consideration of these 10 tips, you can develop successful campaigns that deliver real results.

With myriad options available to reach your prospects, how do you give your message the best chance to succeed? Email has been the method of choice for many businesses, but its popularity has created a deluge of messages in your prospects’ inbox. Every Constant Contact commercial reminds your prospect of how easy and affordable it is to send emails…does that send the right message when you’re looking to stand out? They might feel that they are one of 10,000 recipients instead one that you really care about.

As a result, the pendulum is swinging back to the dimensional direct mail piece because of its ability to stand out and convey your message with maximum impact. By putting in the extra effort and budget to reach out to your top prospects, your business can put itself in the middle of their decision-making process, set the stage for additional telephone, email and direct mail outreach, and build a stronger brand.

There are several best practices that we like to blend into the execution of a dimensional direct mail to help maximize its effectiveness in creating conversions and building pipeline.

Draw Traffic to Your Website

By adding a coordinating landing page to your website that complements your direct mail piece, you can share additional information, while also gathering more information from visitors. Your website can encourage further action through offers and resources, and leave a favorable impression with a prospect. Ultimately, in a typical B2B sales cycle, a prospect would make repeated trips to the site so it’s vital to start the process with a strong call to action on the direct mail.

Integrate Social Media

By including your social media addresses in the DM piece, either as a secondary call to action or even the primary focus, your business can increase its followers, which enables easier outreach going forward. While not all of your prospects may be avid Twitter users, chances are there will be some and by broadening your reach, you can be in their line of sight more frequently.

Make a Lasting Impression

When choosing an item to include in a dimensional mailer, be sure to think about short-term and long-term impact. You want to make a big splash when they open the mailer, but if the item is disposable or has a short shelf life, it diminishes its long-term value for your brand. Conversely, if you pick something that lasts and has utility, you to make sure the piece as a whole is eye catching so the item doesn’t become anonymous. You want your brand out to make an immediate positive impact and have it remain on the prospect’s desk, in their car, on their golf bag, etc. so that you can still be top of mind when they enter the right phase of the sales cycle.

Now’s the time to make a great impression with your customers and prospects. Try a dimensional direct mail and see how it can drive results for your business.

Position at Zer0 to 5ive: Director

Education: BA in Economics/Business from Lafayette College and MBA in Marketing/New Venture Creation from University of Delaware

Hobbies: Softball, running, traveling, board games, networking, visiting new ballparks

Favorite TV Show: How I Met Your Mother

Favorite Singer/Band: Steve Miller Band

Favorite Book: Any Michael Palmer book

Favorite Sports Team: Philadelphia Eagles

Greatest Accomplishment: Beating Lehigh in a tennis match that broke their 18-year winning streak over Lafayette

PR/Marketing Advice: Understand what the reporter is looking for, be direct, and keep following up if you believe you add value

Twitter handle: @mikelevey

So, what is the Brand Gap?

Unfortunately the left brain (analytical, logical, linear, concrete) doesn’t always know what the right brain (intuitive, emotional, spatial, visual) is doing.

Whenever there’s a rift between strategy and creativity – between logic and magic – there’s a brand gap.

It can cause a brilliant strategy to fail where it counts most, at the point of contact with the customer; or, it can doom a bold creative initiative before it’s even launched, as early as the planning stage.

A brand is not what YOU say it is. It’s what THEY say it is.

• A brand is a person’s gut feeling about a product, service or company.
• The foundation of a brand is trust.
• Branding is the process of connecting good strategy with good creative.
• A charismatic brand is any product, service or company for which people believe there’s no substitute.
• People base their buying decisions more on symbolic cues (design) than features, benefits and price. Make sure your symbols are compelling.

Bridging the Brand Gap

How do you bridge the brand gap? Here are some tips suggested by Neumier:

Differentiate:
Our brains filter out irrelevant information letting in only what’s different and useful.

Collaborate:
By asking left-brainers and right-brainers to work as a team, you bridge the gap between logic and magic.

Innovate:
It’s design, not strategy that ignites passion in people. And the magic behind better design and better business is innovation.

Validate:
The standard communication model is antique. Transform your brand communication from a monologue to a dialogue by getting feedback.

Cultivate:
Demand unambiguous answers to these 3 questions:
Who are you? What do you do? Why does it matter?

“Every advertisement should be thought of as a contribution to the complex symbol which is the brand image” – David Ogilvy

View the full presentation here:
http://www.slideshare.net/0to5marketing/the-brand-gap-review

Video is increasingly becoming a preferred channel to market a business and engage with target audiences – customers, media and influencers – that is much more exciting and entertaining than text and photos.

Video can put a personality to your brand with an authenticity that is only available through face-to-face interaction. It is also affordable. The software and cameras available today are cost-effective, making this investment a winner for your business.

Here are five ways to make sure your video communications are maximized:

1) Content
It is critical that the content of your video is informative and will give the viewer a clear takeaway. Whether the video is a product demo, customer case study, tour of your facility, or a message from your CEO on a business topic, it should be direct, to the point, and provide valuable information to the viewer.

It is also important that the video is short – no longer than 3 minutes long. If you need more time, you probably need to think about doing a series of videos!

If the video is a product demo or presentation, keeping it under three minutes may be difficult. Consider developing a “teaser” or trailer that gives the user a quick overview, and then offer the opportunity to watch the entire piece. This way, you get can communicate your key points to the casual viewer and also offer a more in-depth piece to those who want to engage on a deeper level.

2) Interactivity
Adding an interactive element to the video can increase engagement and help you measure the effectiveness of the piece. One way that you can add interactivity is by adding a request to take a poll or survey that is hosted on your website or a third-party survey provider such as Survey Monkey. This can add a level of personal touch to the traditional “tell us what you think” request and gives you the opportunity to assure your audience that their opinions matter.

3) Quality
While videos can be captured easily from a cell phone or computer, it is important that the quality is not totally sacrificed – inferior quality can deter potential viewers. Depending on the topic and tone that you want to convey, it may be worth investing in a third-party vendor to help capture the video and ensure the lighting, sound and overall quality are professional and coincide with the topic being covered. For a video of your CEO providing insight on a critical business issue or a product demo, it is important that your content or message is not lost as a result of poor video quality. Videos taken with a cell phone or flip cam device may be perfectly acceptable for certain uses, such as a quick customer interview at a trade show, or tour of an office. Just be aware that the level of production quality that is put into the video correlates with the perception from the viewer.

4) Optimization
According to a recent Forrester Research study, videos are 53 times more likely to generate a first-page ranking than traditional SEO techniques. Creating a video and posting it to YouTube with a title and metatags makes the content searchable, just like an article or content on your website. The great thing is – it is more likely to be viewed because people like watching videos more than they like reading websites or whitepapers.

However, since 20 hours of new video is uploaded to YouTube every minute, it is challenging to get your YouTube video found. For effective YouTube SEO, identify the target key words your audience is searching for and incorporate them into your title and tag your video with them. Also, make sure your YouTube channel has a complete bio that also coincides with the content on your channel. Another way to make sure your video gets attention is by embedding it on your blog or website. You are more likely to gain viewers if you embed the video than if you simply link to it, so embed wherever you can.

5) Sharing
45% of videos are found through networks, such as YouTube or Facebook, and 44% are discovered on blogs and websites – so it is important to balance where the video lives and how it can be shared. Posting a link to the video on your Facebook and Twitter accounts can help get the word out and will also help promote others to share the video with their networks as well.

Additionally, if you submit a video to social video bookmarking sites (such as Digg.com, Video Bomb, Flurl, or StumbleVideo), you have the potential to gain a lot of viewers if enough people vote for your video.

Finally, if possible, incorporate videos into your email campaigns. Video in email is said to be able to boost conversion rates by as much as 50 percent!

Don’t miss out on the opportunity to share your message across multiple communication channels. With video you can derive several benefits without a huge investment.

Kathleen Fusco
Zer0 to 5ive Senior Strategist
Twitter: @kathleenz10

Here are 7 tips for maximizing the success of your Skype media interview.

1. Use a Secure Connection – Make sure you have a secure Internet or Wi-Fi connection, and test it out in advance of the interview. Forbes offers a good point to make sure your computer has plenty of battery power.

2. Choose a Quiet Location – Pick a quiet location that will help you concentrate and project an professional image. Keep your colleagues in the office informed so that they do not interrupt you during the interview; consider taping a short note on your office door.
3. Create an Optimal Background – Use a simple and professional backdrop to avoid background confusion. Check that you have the proper lighting to avoid unusual shadows. In addition, CNN suggests avoiding patterns that come across as too loud on screen, such as bright stripes, that make it hard to focus on the spokesperson.
4. Look into the Webcam – Maintain eye contact with the webcam as though you are speaking with an actual person. It can be confusing if you look at the monitor or down at your notes, as your eyes will appear to be looking away. Allow for enough distance between yourself and the camera – sitting too close might overwhelm your audience.
5. Conduct a Test Run – Test the audio, video camera (built-in or external) and Internet connection with another person in advance of the interview. In addition, contact the producer in advance of the interview to check for special requirements. For example, I recently worked with a TV station that preferred my client to use ear buds instead of a speakerphone.
6. Leverage B-Roll – Send the reporter b-roll in advance of the interview for longer segments. This helps provide a visual balance between the spokesperson and the company’s product or operation, especially as Skype connections tend to be of lower quality. B-roll can be formatted electronically and emailed to the reporter through YouSendIt.
7. Have a Backup Plan – Take the direct line of the reporter or producer to ensure that you can reach them in the event of a poor or lost connection. Provide the reporter with a high-resolution headshot to use. Hang any key notes or data points in a spot that only you can see.

Although Skype interviews don’t have the quality of an in-studio setup, they are continuing to open the door to media opportunities in new geographic locations. Using these tips will help ensure that you use Skype to your advantage. Click to watch a sample Skype media interview from a Zer0 to 5ive client.

Post by Michael Levey
Zer0 to 5ive Director
Twitter: @mikelevey

Position at Zer0 to 5ive: Creative Director

Education: Penn Stain Main Campus, B.S. Liberal Arts / The Art Institute of Philadelphia, A.S. Graphic Design

Hobbies: Working out, Photography, Cooking/Baking, Shopping online

Favorite TV Shows: Anthony Bourdain, No Reservations, Sex in the City Reruns, Curb Your Enthusiasm

Favorite Singer/Band: Too many to pick just one!

Favorite Book: Where the Wild Things Are, By Maurice Sendak, and Bridging the Brand Gap By Marty Neumeier

Favorite Sports Team: Penn State Nittany Lions

Greatest Accomplishment: Finishing a Half Marathon

PR/Marketing Advice: Move with the cheese…

Twitter handle: @phillydesignr

How Does it Work?

Gravity Forms validates the data from the user, and stores it into the WordPress admin interface so you can log in and see who has submitted entries.

What is the Downside?

The only downside to Gravity Forms is that by default it does not give you an option to have a second “action,” as you have to send your forms to 3^rd party software. However, with some simple coding, this can be remedied!

Adding a Second Action

Start by creating your form within Gravity Forms and adding it to a page. Once it is implemented correctly, you can start the process of adding the second action. First, we need to get the relevant ID’s of the Gravity Form fields. Open up your functions.php file (/wp-content/themes/*your-theme*/functions.php) and scroll to the very bottom, and add this code:

add_action("gform_post_submission", "set_post_content", 10, 2);
 function set_post_content($entry, $form){
 //Gravity Forms has validated the data
 //Our Custom Form Submitted via PHP will go here

 // Lets get the IDs of the relevant fields and prepare an email message
 $message = print_r($entry, true);

 // In case any of our lines are larger than 70 characters, we should use wordwrap()
 $message = wordwrap($message, 70);

 // Send
 mail('travis@0to5.com', 'Getting the Gravity Form Field IDs', $message);
 }

The snippet above will hook into all forms being submitted through Gravity Forms after submission (Replace travis@0to5.com with your relevant email).  After putting this in your functions.php file, go ahead and fill out your form. Make sure to fill in ALL fields with relevant data so that we can determine which fields are associated with which IDs.

You should receive an email that looks similar to this:

Sort out the relevant IDs to the relevant fields and write them down.  For example, my name is Travis Hoglund, so the first name field = 1.3, and the last name field = 1.6, etc.

Now that we know the field ID’s, we can implement a custom curl function to submit the data through PHP, just as it is sent through a browser. Below is the complete code – it might look like a lot, but I will explain it!

add_action("gform_post_submission", "set_post_content", 10, 2);
 function set_post_content($entry, $form){

 // Lets get the IDs of the relevant fields and prepare an email message
 //$message = print_r($entry, true);

 // In case any of our lines are larger than 70 characters, we should use wordwrap()
 //$message = wordwrap($message, 70);

 // Send
 //mail('travis@0to5.com', 'Getting the Gravity Form Field IDs', $message);

 function post_to_url($url, $data) {
 $fields = '';
 foreach($data as $key => $value) {
 $fields .= $key . '=' . $value . '&';
 }
 rtrim($fields, '&');

 $post = curl_init();

 curl_setopt($post, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
 curl_setopt($post, CURLOPT_POST, count($data));
 curl_setopt($post, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $fields);
 curl_setopt($post, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);

 $result = curl_exec($post);

 curl_close($post);
 }

 if($form["id"] == 8){//Join Our Mailing List

 $data = array(
 "first_name" =>     $entry["1.3"],
 "last_name" =>     $entry["1.6"],
 "title" =>         $entry["2"],
 "company" =>     $entry["3"],
 "street" =>         $entry["4.1"],
 "city" =>         $entry["4.3"],
 "state" =>         $entry["4.4"],
 "zip" =>         $entry["4.5"],
 "country" =>     $entry["4.6"],
 "website" =>     $entry["10"],
 "email" =>         $entry["5"],
 "phone" =>         $entry["6"],
 "industry" =>     $entry["7"],
 "description" => $entry["8"],
 "formName" => "join-mailing-list-98368402345"
 );

 post_to_url("https://thirdPartyApplication.php", $data);

 }

 }

As you can see, I commented out the email code because we do not need this anymore.  If you have access to the third party forms, you will want to use software like Firebug (or you can just view source) and get the name attribute of each field.

<form action="https://thirdPartyApplication.php" method="post">
 <input style="" value="" id="field1">

I used Firebug to grab this snippet from my third party form. You will notice that the form is submitting to https://thirdPartyApplication.php so that is the value that must go in your code. Below that is the third party code for the First Name Field which has a name of first_name, so that is what it MUST be in the above PHP code if you want the third party to grab your POST variables correctly.

Most forms use hidden fields to determine what form is being submitted, so make sure you include them in your PHP code as well.  Here, the name and value are important:

<input type="hidden" value="join-mailing-list-98368402345">

As long as you make sure to include all of your form fields, use the correct IDs, and submit them with the relevant name attributes from the third party forms, you get the best of both worlds. Gravity Forms will validate your forms, save them to the admin interface, and your third party software will also receive them.

Happy Gravity Forms!

Travis Hoglund
Zer0 to 5ive Senior Developer