Wow, is it really almost the end of June?  It seems like the Summer is flying by!  After taking some time off for the wedding in May (which was the best day ever, by the way!), I have been working, working, working to get caught back up! I wanted to take a short break though to share two projects that we just completed which I am very excited about! Both are WordPress websites for local Charlottesville ladies and we loved being a part of both of them!

First, Congratulations to April on the launch of Armillary Coaching! April already had beautiful branding by Watermark Design but needed a simple website to share her services and upcoming events.  With the help of How Joyful Design, we customized a WordPress template for her that meets all of her needs and is easy for her to update as she grows and adds more events.  If you need help finding some direction in your personal or professional life, give April a call! Also, be sure to check out the list of workshops that she has coming up.  The Vision Board Workshop sounds really cool to me!   Check out the full site by clicking on this image:

The second site is for a great local ‘challenge’ called The Better Business Challenge.  They also had great branding already but needed a website to share information on the challenge with participants and those considering taking part.  We also worked with How Joyful Design on this project to customize a site for them that features their sponsors & participants and offers lots of resources on how to incorporate more efficient and sustainable practices into business.  If you’re a local business, please check it out…it certainly creates a win-win situation for everyone involved! Check out the full site by clicking on this image:

Sometimes my event planning and marketing careers truly do collide! It happened again recently when Christina at Speak! Language Center contacted us about helping to promote her downtown space for meetings & events when they are not using it for language classes.  Here is what we came up with together- details about the space, a pricing structure and a simple layout that she can easily edit as needed.  If you are looking for a unique downtown event space (or want to learn a new language), be sure to check out Speak!

Tuesday, May 3rd- Tuesday, May 10th

Good Morning! In case you haven’t heard me go on about it enough, our wedding weekend is coming up on May 6-8!

I wanted to go ahead and announce now that Garnet will be on ‘Spring Break’ from Tuesday, May 3rd until Tuesday, May 10th. Since its just me around here most of the time, that means that there won’t be much e-mail checking & phone call answering during that time.  So, if you have any marketing projects on your list, be sure to get them to us soon!

THANK YOU in advance for your understanding!

In honor of this beautiful 80 degree weather, the project that we chose for today was finishing up the content and images on a Caribbean Travel WordPress website that we have been working on for a few weeks now.  First, thank you Corin for choosing us to help with a site for your very fun new business and thanks to Joy at How Joyful Design Studio for making it look so bright & beachy! It certainly makes me want to take a vacation!

If you’re interested in traveling to these amazing places, contact Corin for details.  She has some GREAT deals on all inclusive packages!

One of my favorite Lynne Goldman designs

I don’t feature our wonderful clients on the blog often enough! Today I wanted to congratulate Lynne Goldman Studio on their recent Facebook success! When we first met they had two accounts floating around and weren’t sure where to start.  In just a couple of weeks, they are now up to 110 fans are having some great conversations online with both their customers and colleagues.  We also just completed a very successful Wildfire Promotion for them which we promoted through their facbeook fan page.  They gave away a beautiful pair of sterling silver earrings and had 364 entries!

Often, we consult with businesses on social media only to see them not follow through with it down the road.  This is a great example of the success that you can see in a short time! Next time you’re in Barracks Road, stop in to say hello!

If you’re interested in social media for your business, check out out upcoming workshops!

We have been getting lots of requests lately for both personal and business Facebook HELP!  After doing a couple of individual lessons each week, we decided that it would  be more cost effective for our clients (and for others out there who are in the same boat) if we offered group lessons. So, Workshop Wednesdays were born!

They are limited to 8 people and are very hands on. You will leave each workshop with a real working knowledge of the topic on your own computer and in your own account. No need to go back home or to the office and try to figure it out based on your notes! Here are the dates that we have scheduled so far:

Personal Facebook For Beginners
Wednesday, April 13th – 5:30pm-7:30pm
The Workbench Studio at Open Space
COST: $49 per person (includes beverages & snacks provided by Open Space)

Business Basics: Facebook Fan Pages
Wednesday, April 20th – 8:30am-10:30am
The Workbench Studio at Open Space
COST: $59 per person (includes beverages & snacks provided by Open Space)

Business Basics: Facebook Level Two
I Have A Facebook Fan Page, Now What?
Wednesday, April 27th – 3:30pm-5:30pm
The Workbench at Open Space
COST: $69 per person (includes beverages & snacks provided by Open Space)

Click HERE for more details or to register for one of the workshops!

As Chris and I plan our own wedding celebration (less than 50 days!!) I have been thinking a lot about how all of these little pieces that we are putting together are really just creating a ‘brand’ for us as a couple and for the event.  I think about it so much because wedding and event branding bring together two favorite ‘work-related’ things: marketing and event planning.

When most people think of ‘branding’ they think of a new business creating a color palette, logo, website and maybe some business cards and brochures that represent what the business is all about.  These things are then used in various ways to gain customers and clients.  Think about this for a minute: Isn’t the goal of a wedding to represent the couple and what they are becoming together?  And since there are just 52 weekends in a year and people are busy, they really are in some ways ‘marketing’ their wedding to their guests.  Sure, wedding guests will attend because they love the couple but giving them a hint of what to expect from the beginning certainly can’t hurt!

You may not need business cards and brochures for a wedding but you do need invitations, napkins, thank you notes, decor, shoes and all kinds of other little things that represent YOU.  My ‘definition’ of branding a wedding is choosing just a few things (colors, a monogram, a pattern, fonts, etc.) that pop up in well planned little places from the save the date to the thank you note to the point where guests will recognize that they are happening.

An important Tip: Don’t go crazy! You don’t need to put your new initial on everything in site! Think quality vs. quantity and place the elements that you choose in well thought out places that are noticeable but not obnoxious.

Here are just a few examples that I came across this morning.  I will share some professional photos of the ‘brand’ that Chris and I have created after May 7th.  That is the other important thing about branding events…don’t forget to keep some elements of surprise for your guests!

www.hellomonkeygraphics.blogspot.com

www.kellyoshiroevents.com

www.iluweddingsblog.com

Create a blog schedule in advance...and stick to it!

Blogging is hard! For small business owners, finding the time to do it at all and then coming up with great content to share with your readers is not easy.  Although I am a big advocate of blogging for business, I often have to take my own advice because for some reason getting the Garnet blog to the top of my ‘to do’  list seems to be impossible.

So, how do we solve this problem?  I suggest looking at your blog as a real publication and creating an editorial calendar for it.  You may find that it works well to do this monthly or even quarterly.  I will use myself as an example.  Early last week I had readers submit marketing questions via blog comments and facebook and my plan was to use them as content for future blog posts starting right away.  Well, the readers responded (thanks everyone!) but then I was sick for several days and the weekend was busy so now it’s still sitting on my list.

So, today I am creating a plan and I am sticking to it! Here is my ‘editorial calendar’ for the next month.  Take a few minutes to create one for yourself today and let’s stick to them together! Check back on the dates listed below for answers to your marketing questions. Thanks to my plan, I promise they will be there!  Another tip: you can write as many of the posts as you would like in one setting.  Just schedule them to post on future dates based on your plan.

Tuesday March 22nd
Wedding & Event Branding
This is first only because I have been dying to blog about it for a while since we are planning our own wedding as I type

Thursday, March 24th
Birthday Q&A: Erin from Pufferbellies
“My challenge is — it’s so hard to know what works when it comes to advertising! Sometimes I feel like I’m just throwing money into the wind and hoping some of it comes back. I’m at the point where we don’t do any “traditional” advertising (newspaper, magazine, radio, TV) at ALL because I just have no idea what works. So we’re down to Facebook, email, annual catalog, blog, and that’s about it.”

Tuesday, March 29th
Birthday Q&A: Jennifer Prince from Hill City Bride
“Marketing challenge? Where to invest my money in marketing and what has the greatest return … hard questions to figure out.
Marketing question? I am very into facebook and twitter for my business, but I still have not figure out the value of Linked In. Can you help??”

Friday, April 1st
Marketing To Your ‘Competitors’
The Spring CCWEP party is the night before so I want to focus on how this group uses networking and relationships with their colleagues to keep the wedding industry growing by leaps and bounds in this area.

Tuesday, April 5th
Birthday Q&A: Local Non-Profit Organization
“How do we positively market an event that might be almost sold-out before the invites drop?! we want to avoid negative fallout, but celebrate success!”

Thursday, April 7th
Birthday Q&A: Kimberly Mufferi Photography
“What is the best way to market on a tight budget, and still stand out in a saturated market? And Jennifer’s questions too…. What marketing has the greatest return? and the value of linked in?”

Tuesday, April 12th
Birthday Q&A: Feast
“Marketing challenge? Entering the wedding world in Charlottesville! We have a lot to offer to brides but want to be specific and appealing not overwhelming. And how do we reach them?”

Thursday April 14th
Birthday Q&A: Claire at Charlottesville Wedding Blog
“What do you know about PeopleJar.com It keeps coming across my desk and I was wondering if you know anything”

Tuesday, April 19th
Birthday Q&A: Leslie
“Congratulations on your first full year at Garnet! My current marketing challenge is to crystallize my varied skillset/interests into a new business. Deciding what kind of business I really want and what services, specifically, I want to offer.”

Tomorrow I’ll be taking a day off from blogging.  As you enjoy that beautiful weather that we are getting here in VA, think about those in Japan and support them in some way tomorrow!  Here is just one idea: ShelterBox Check back next week for the start of our birthday contest series! We will be answering the marketing questions that our readers submitted.

Pufferbellies Toys and Books in Staunton, VA

Congratulations to Erin at Pufferbellies Toys and Books in Staunton, VA who won the drawing for Garnet’s birthday cake after submitting a marketing question on our first birthday!

If you haven’t been to Pufferbellies it’s worth a drive ‘over the mountain’! They offer specialty toys and books and the last time I was there they had some really awesome stuff that I wanted to buy even though I don’t have kids! Congrats Erin! We hope you enjoy the $25 gift certificate to Chandler’s Bakery! YUM!

Some great questions were submitted and we promise to answer them all over the next few weeks so keep checking back!