How can next week be the 4th of July? It is amazing to me how fast the month of June passed, but when I think about what occurred in the month it is very clear to me why it was such a blur.
The following 5 events and efforts highlight this crazy month of June:
1. College visits – we hit the circuit of the latest round of college visits hours after my son’s junior year ended. Two moms and “two rising seniors” on a flight to Philly to see 5 schools in 2 days. And the winner is…Drexel University! From the moment we entered the admissions office, Drexel wins the marketing award for having the clearest sense of who they are, for being consistent across all touch points of who they are, for a solid and well thought out value proposition and for offering a real sense of value. Kudos to Drexel University! Excellent video, excellent presenters, fabulous tagline and excellent tour group leader and they even followed up with a survey to get feedback. Great job!
2. Client Event with the American Red Cross – I am a planner. In all aspects of my life I plan. I know it is a strength and a gift to my clients, but I also know that life can be overly planned and structured. I get that. When it comes to planning client events, my team is an A team. We document, plan, update and ensure that all items are well-planned, communicated and executed well. When a client event is planned with a large national organization such as the American Red Cross, we assume they too have their plan defined and under control. That was not the case. They were fragmented, bureaucratic and ‘loose’ which is not how we operate. Fortunately up to 72 lives can be saved with the blood that was drawn the day of the event, but we know what could have and should have been. Live and learn. We move on.
3. Boston Red Sox Pitcher Jake Peavy and client event – what a highlight of the month! I am a HUGE Red Sox fan and have been since I wanted to marry outfield Reggie Smith back in the early 1970s! (so no, I have not recently jumped on the bandwagon just because they won some trophies!) Jake Peavy is our designated player this year for Jaffarian Volvo Toyota Scion and he was able to join us. What a tremendous person! I so enjoyed meeting him and a highlight of my month was him letting me try on his World Series ring. See facebook for the photo!. Thank you Jake for being so gracious including your heartfelt conversation with a war veteran who had served 15 months in Iraq. Thank you Luke Peavy for helping to make this happen – so great to meet with you and chat with you. I am confident the Red Sox will turn it around after the all star break.
4. Merrimack Valley Habitat for Humanity – the Builders Blitz from June 9 – June 14th! Wow what a week! It truly takes a village of wonderful people to plan and execute on building two homes in 5 1/2 days. There are hundreds of people to thanks and dozens of companies to name who made this week so special. The good news is there are many great people in the world who want to give back and help others. The two families who will call these two houses “home” each have five children. It was an incredible week and thanks to so many who made this so worthwhile and special including The Eagle Tribune, Rumba, North Shore Magazine who helped cover the event and spread the good news of Merrimack Valley Habitat for Humanity. I owned the marketing efforts – signage, t-shirts and PR. As part of the team and as a board member, it was a fabulous week. Now if I could only be seen in some of the press photos 😉
5. Client work – yes the month still included client work. The common themes were content creation and lead generation. Our efforts to generate leads for our clients continued strong with clients consistently acknowledging that lack of leads was not their issue. FMM clients had more leads than targeted! Unfortunately the common issue is sales working the leads effectively to convert them to revenue. Another big focus in the month was content creation – specifically content for a client leveraging Thomas Net as a generator of leads. Note to anyone investing in such listings – secure a proven marketing partner to ensure your listings are accurate, thorough and complete. Investing in such a listing may make a lot of sense but if you rely on the folks at such a company to understand your business and present you clearly and correctly, you are likely mistaken and wasting the investment. Don’t risk relying on strangers to write your marketing message. Get it right and you will get better leads.
June was a blur. I expect July will also pass quickly, but I hope the first week last 3 weeks! Summer is officially here and the 4th of July is upon us. Looking forward to some downtime to recharge the battery that is running a bit low.