Category Archives: Marketing

Drip Marketing

31 August 2015

Marketing, Our thinking Leave a comment

Long gone are the days where a simple print run in the local daily newspaper will get the phone to ring. The old adage: The first exposure to a consumer is to familiarize them with your company, the second exposure is to get them to recall your company, and the third is to get them to respond.

Unfortunately, the formula isn’t even that simple anymore. Both in training and in practice, marketers rely on the marketing mix, getting the right blend of attention-getting creative into the right media channels to drive consumer action. It’s not just marketing speak, it truly is what will trigger conversions.

Drip Marketing is the process of building consumer touchpoints that a customer receives on a strategic timeline. For example, they may first receive a direct mailer from you (to familiarize) followed closely by an email blast with relatively the same information (to recall). But what is the right blend of scheduling a reminder system that won’t annoy your consumer and possibly cause them to…GASP!…unsubscribe from your contact list?

Here are my two pieces of advice: start conservatively and test. While you don’t want to just throw the ball in their court and expect them to convert, you also don’t want to hit them with five reminders. That will surely get them to hit that “Unsubscribe” button. Create a campaign that includes several different kinds of media rather than only a series of emails or direct mail. Utilize paid search ads to bring the item they viewed on your website or an upcoming deadline back to the front of their mind. Drip with a followup phone call from a sales rep if your development team can take that on. Just make sure you test your strategy. Carefully note your benchmarks of your retail funnel when you start your drip campaign and make sure that as you do get more targeted to your potential sales pool, that you are also not forcing people out by messaging or fatigue.

The downside of drip marketing is that the whole channel is hard to measure. Most media sources are becoming more and more trackable by online click through rates or impressions, but for the foreseeable future, there are some inherently untrackable channels. Billboard performance, for example, can be guesstimated through monitoring web traffic or phone calls while the board is up (based on the Call to Action used) but really, for entire campaigns, it will need to be judged as whole and how it affected your company’s intake of interest.

Branding, Strategy and Design for the AEC Industry

30 January 2015

AEC Industry, Marketing, Our thinking, Uncategorized Leave a comment

The value of rebranding — it’s not about the logo

The AEC industry has changed drastically since many firms were formed. If your firm wants to remain relevant, it’s time to re-evaluate your brand to make sure that it’s clearly reflecting your grand vision (you do have one don’t you?), brand personality, core values and purpose. Many established firms that come to us (over 20 AEC firms to date) are looking to refresh their identity or their website or {fill in the blank} without an integrated approach. Unfortunately this doesn’t always achieve the desired result. Your brand is so much more than just a tactic.

Probably one of the most significant outcomes of our branding process is the clarity and focus that it generates for your leadership team. It has a rejuvenating effect on the entire company—a renewed sense of purpose that goes deeper than some cheap marketing gimmick or incentive ever could.

The top 5 benefits of rebranding

You will have a platform to establish a leadership position in your category and more importantly create alignment inside your company. It’s another chance to get things right.
Your vision, purpose and core values get reflected into your new brand identity creating a sense of pride within your company.
You will attract the right talent to your company and more importantly, make it easier to finally release those people that you know should have released long ago.
You get exciting new graphics that rejuvenate your proposals, business cards, signage, shirts, trucks, website, etc.
You get a brand standards guide to make sure your brand is consistent across all forms of communication – a key ingredient to managing a strong brand.

Video Production Capabilities

21 August 2014

Marketing, Video Production Leave a comment

A lot of people ask us, “what all do you do?”

Most people are aware of our web and graphic design work, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. We handle full, integrated marketing duties for many of our clients. From brand strategy and marketing plans, to execution of various tactics within each… including video. Take a look below at some recent video projects created exclusively by the Tripp Co. team.

HIPPO Multipower – Serious power for serious work.

HIPPO Multipower systems has been working with Tripp Co. for several years now. Recently we packed our gear and headed west to Kansas City. Our goal was to create a promo video for their awesome line of multi-power systems that could be used in whole or edited down to product specific segments.The team at Tripp Co. concepted the video and wrote out the script. Once approved, we assembled our shot list and started auditioning voice over artists. Finally, the team headed down to KC to shoot. Once we arrived, small bumps occurred. Some of the shots planned weren’t possible due to locations falling through, etc., but our guys (and clients) are quick thinkers. They adjusted the schedule, with the help of the client, and powered through. Take a look at the finished cut here.

Giving injured wildlife a Better Life

One day, while monitoring social for our clients on “The Facebook”, one of our team members read a post by the Wildlife Rescue Center asking for items to help treat the injured patients currently in care. On that list was unscented laundry detergent. So, a call was placed and Better Life graciously sprung into action. Their laundry product is not just unscented, but also natural… ensuring that it won’t harm the feathers and fur of these little ones. At the end of the day, Better Life donated a full pallet of laundry detergent and walked away knowing that their donation will help rehabilitate these critters and return them to the wild. Watch the video documenting delivery day here.

Give us a call or drop us a line and let us help your brand get moving.

“Pinteresting” development for businesses.

3 July 2014

Pinterest is a powerhouse in the social media spectrum when you are wanting to reach and engage with females 18-49. But, up until now, many small and mid-sized businesses were a little shut out by big-budget brands.

Well, Pinterest has big news for smaller companies because the social media site is now expanding its ad business to be the perfect platform for any size company. Time magazine explained how Pinterest is thinking big to target small.

This summer, Pinterest plans to broaden its advertising model to make ads viable for small and medium-sized businesses, on a cost-per-click basis to be served in specific Pinterest categories. This will differ from their prior process, which had set rates based on a cost per 1,000 views. With this new cost-per-click model, advertising on Pinterest will become more accessible, affordable, and amenable to smaller-sized companies.

Not only will this move position Pinterest as a viable and valuable vehicle for any sized business to add to its social marketing mix, but it will also give the site a sharp marketing boost against rival social media platforms and search engines that use a similar system. The shift will pin Pinterest as a direct competitor to Facebook, Twitter, and even Google, since their business is built on their ad business.

Keep up with all the latest trends and news for social media marketing, digital, branding and creative. Call Trippco at 314-440-3477 or 954-736-4796

Award winning month for Tripp Co.

26 September 2013

We’d like to thank…

Awards have never been our focus, but it is sure nice to get them.

Recently, Tripp Co. became the recipients of several awards: seven (7) American Graphic Design Awards; five (5) TAM Awards (including People’s Choice); and we were named one of St. Louis’ Top 20 Small Business by Small Business Monthly.

Not one of the ceremonies allowed us to make an acceptance speech, but we have a lot of people to thank… so here it goes:

“First and foremost, we’d like to thank our clients, without whom none of this would be possible. We’d like to thank our Moms for encouraging us that it was okay NOT to become doctors and lawyers and such. We’d like to thank the liquor industry for giving us legal ways to deal with the stress. We’d like to thank Jesus and Angel, our janitors, without whom this place would be a wreck. We’d like to thank each other for not going on a rampage and killing the other staff during this incredibly crazy and successful year. And last, we’d like to thank the late Steve Jobs for his invention of the Apple Computer and this crack-like obsession we all have with our iPhones. Oh, and those people we live with that may or may not be our spouses and take the brunt of the craziness.”

The American Graphic Design Awards are sponsored by Graphic Design USA and honors outstanding new work. Projects honored included the Slowburn Theatre Company Logo, CMD Bricks Logo, Nidec Event Invitation, St. Louis CNR Magazine, High Fidelity Poster for Slowburn and the HIPPO Website.

The Targeted Area Marketing Awards (TAMS) honor agencies, companies and individuals who create St. Louis’s best B2B advertising, marketing, corporate and professional communications. We entered only five entries and were awarded four (we are demanding a recount on the fifth). Additionally, all attendees of the award ceremony voted for our Gateway Men’s Chorus Campaign to receive the People’s Choice award.

Finally, Tripp Co. was named one of St. Louis’ Top 20 Small Business by Small Business Monthly Magazine. We were very honored to be included in the list of recipients which included such companies as American Vending Machines, Contegix, Miken Technologies and Payne Family Homes (to name a few).

A closer look at an award winning website

Industrial products website highlights features and puts users in the driver’s seat.

When Mobile Hydraulic Equipment designed the HIPPO Multipower System, they knew they were going to change the electrical, welding, air and hydraulic construction arena. Consequently, they needed a website for this line of products that would allow them to be clearly explained to prospective buyers. Additionally, the site needed to allow the user to easily gather information on the individual products within the various product lines. The previous website had grown outdated and did a poor job of driving traffic/potential clients to gather information for Mulitpower’s new HIPPO Multipower Systems line of products so it was scrapped and a new site was developed from scratch.

This new website was created with functionality and audience in mind and a custom PDF tool was developed to benefit both employees and clients. On each page throughout the site, a “PAGE +” icon exists that allows the user to save all information from that page into a dynamically built PDF brochure simply by clicking it. In the right hand corner, an orange “My PDF” icon allows them to access and arrange their PDF, then email all the information saved to themselves or to users.

Additionally we added a product tagging feature and coded the site to be responsive, so that it works on all platforms and devices without the need for a separate mobile site.Take a look at their site and explore all the tools.

Give us a call or drop us a line and let us create award winning communications for you.

About Tripp Co. Creative

Tripp Co. Creative, Inc. is an integrated creative agency with big project experience. All of our team members have a passion for collaborating with clients and we’d love to visually charge your message with a uniquely authentic and memorable voice that stands out from the crowd. From collateral design, web design, branding and identity to advertising, interactive campaigns, social media and marketing, Tripp Co. brings a unique and highly creative perspective to any project.

CR8 GR8 Creative Grant Opportunity For Non-profit Organizations

1 May 2013

Since opening its doors in 2007, Tripp Co. Creative has held on to one main, core belief; doing good work for good people. In keeping with that theme, Tripp Co. Creative, Inc. is making efforts to help the community take another step forward by introducing the CR8 GR8 Creative Service Grant. Over the years Tripp Co. has worked with many non-profit organizations and they have always proudly offered reduced rates for registered non-profits. Tripp Co. will be offering up to eight service grants ranging from full grants to matching grants through the CR8 GR8 project. These grants are fulfilled with services, completed by Tripp Co. Creative, to the receiving organizations.

CR8 GR8 is a “GR8” opportunity for non-profit organizations to receive services at reduced to no cost, and for Tripp Co. to give back to the community. Tripp Co. makes it a point to not forget the organizations improving our community or the people who truly care and are always seeking to better the environment, society, or people and animal lives.

Tripp Co. is a complete creative service firm. From branding, marketing, and design, they are the “anything is possible” firm. Tripp Co. will make it their goal to help raise awareness or funds for the selected organizations encompassing the full range of brand marketing and creative services that they provide on a regular basis:

Brand assessment
Brand development
Naming (organizations/programs/services)
Messaging
Marketing materials
Appeal Programs
Campaigns
Fundraising communications
Web site design and development
Email marketing/social marketing tools
Event branding and materials
Annual reports
Newsletters

Registered non-profits can go here and download the CR8 GR8 application packet. Also, please feel free to explore the page for more information and frequently asked questions. All non-profit and social organizations are encouraged to apply for a grant.

The deadline for submission is May 15, 2013 and grant recipients will be announced by June 14, 2013.

The Top Five Reasons Your Company Should be Investing in SEO

7 March 2013

With over 250 million websites on the internet, it is now vitally important that your company has an online marketing campaign to help you stand out from your competitors. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a list of strategies that increase your website’s visibility in search engines. Here are 5 reasons your business needs to invest in an SEO campaign:

Everybody “Googles” It. Over 90 percent of online users are finding their information through search engines daily. People aren’t relying on the phone book anymore to find the information they need for local companies; they are stacking their phone books on top of last year’s phone book. Most people are on their computers or smart phones and can find the information they need instantly. SEO can help put your business website front and center in the search results.
If you’ve got it, flaunt it. One of the biggest mistakes you can make as a business is to spend a lot of time and money on a really great design for your website and then not follow through to market it properly. All of that time and energy creating really great content and making your site beautiful and engaging to users is wasted if no one can find your site.
Why not you? If you are not marketing your website properly, then the searchers aren’t finding you, they are finding someone else. What’s worse is a lot of people equate the top search result as the “best” company or the leader in that segment, when the truth is, they’ve just got the best spot in the rankings. If you have a really great product or service to offer, you need SEO to make sure you’re in that top spot when your clients are searching.
Highly engaged customers. One of the best parts of SEO is that it puts your website right in front of your target audience. The people searching for your site ALREADY WANT WHAT YOU’RE OFFERING. You could pay for a mailer or an ad and hope that someone who sees it wants your product or service. However, with SEO, we’re helping those customers who are already engaged to find you instead of you finding them.
Long lasting value. If you take the time to optimize your site so it ranks well, you will see longer lasting results in the organic rankings than just starting up a pay-per-click campaign. While PPC campaigns can definitely help grow your business, once the ads stop, so does the traffic to your site. If you restructure your website to rank well, then all future additions and changes to your site will fall into place with your SEO strategy.

Contact St. Louis design firm Tripp Co today to talk about pricing plans for SEO services. Tripp Co. Creative is a creative service, marketing and advertising firm located just outside of the St. Louis metropolitan area. From brand identity to web design, Tripp Co. Creative is capable of handling any and all creative and marketing needs for clients. For more information, please visit our website at TrippCo

Tripp Co. Creative Introduces Certified Zombie Marketing Specialist (CZMS) Certification

14 February 2013

St. Louis, MO & Collinsville, IL —Tripp Co. Creative – the fastest growing creative and marketing services firm in the Metro St. Louis Area – has made it their mission to help businesses plan for what looks like will be the biggest change in society since the extinction of the Twinkie. This change is going to be crucial to every company’s bottom line. As of June 20^th, 2013 Zombie’s will be a part of our world and they will need to be represented in every marketing plan and mix. How is this possible you ask? Well, that’s where Tripp Co., premier leader of the successful Brain Biter Marketing Association (BBMA) has stepped in by offering Certified Zombie Marketing Specialist (CZMS) Certification and Survival Kits.

Recognizing the need for yet another marketing certification and the desire of so many marketing pros to add cute little initials behind the name line on their business cards, Tripp Co. has made sure to create a certification to prove the pros are ready for the living-impaired.

Marketing professionals can log on to zombie.trippco.net to meet the Tripp Co. Zombie Crew, receive exclusive tips on Zombie Marketing, take the Marketing Quiz and become a Certified Zombie Marketing Specialist. They can also purchase their own CZMS Survival Kit! The kit includes: Target Markets, Lethal Marketing Tactics, and a handy-dandy Survival Guide. With their certification and Tripp Co. Creative’s creative expertise, together they can knock these zombies dead with lethal marketing tactics in 2013.

WARNING: Tripp Co. Creative’s arsenal – including collateral design, web design, branding and identity, advertising, interactive campaigns, social media and marketing, has been know to receive “Bieber Fever” type reactions in Zombies. Tripp Co Creative, Inc. is not responsible for any Zombie related bites, scratches, or groping. In the event that an injury does occur please seek medical attention immediately.

Tripp Co. Creative is a creative service, marketing and advertising firm located just outside of the St. Louis metropolitan area. From brand identity to web design, Tripp Co. Creative is capable of handling any and all creative and marketing needs for clients. For more information, please visit our website at TrippCo.net.

Donco Electrical Construction Hires Tripp Co. Creative to Design New Website

14 February 2013

St. Louis, MO & Collinsville, IL —Donco Electrical Construction came to Tripp Co. Creative with a unique need. They asked the creative branding and design team at Tripp Co. to design website concepts for Donco Electrical Construction and two of its other companies, Utility Design Services (UDS) and Phone Masters. The websites were to be designed so that clients of one company, could easily access the other two companies without having to leave the original site. All three websites are linked by the same content management system, making it easy for them to be updated by employees. The in-house graphic design team at Tripp Co. Creative designed the websites.

Along with the website design, the team at Tripp Co., comprised of graphic designers, printing, public relations and marketing specialists, also re-designed the brand identity for Donco, UDS and Phone Masters. Tripp Co. created new logo concepts for all three companies. The new logos were designed specifically to allow the companies to be recognized as one entity when working together, but as individuals as well.

Bargain bin or custom fit?

24 August 2012

Let’s just imagine for a moment that you are a man (maybe you are) and you are buying a suit. This “outfit” is going to represent who you are and tell the world that you are successful at what you do. You walk into the store and spot the perfect suit. Maybe it has a slight pinstripe or perhaps you go for the classic charcoal gray. The sales person approaches and says, “Sure, those are nice. We could tailor that to your unique needs and your suit will be exactly what you want, but let me show you these suits over here.” The sales person walks you to the back of the store where there are several identical black suits hanging loosely on wire hangers. He continues, “They are pretty close to what you want and the material is inferior. Oh, and the fit may be a little off in places, but look at the price. I can get you into this suit here for 1/3 of the cost of the good suit.”

A lot of businesses have been considering the cheap route lately (templates) when it comes to print and web projects. On many levels, we get it. We haven’t been in a booming economy and we all need to be better stewards of our marketing dollars.

It’s an overall unfortunate situation, really, because those who go the template route are missing a really great opportunity. This is your chance to get ahead. While everyone else is settling for a template, you can bust out with custom built materials. There’s truly no better way to get your customers’ attention.

Having a brand created just for feels exactly the same as getting that suit tailored. Was your business card created custom? If so, you know you won’t see another one like it in the whole world. It truly represents you, because it was built for you. We may have actually done the design work on your custom pieces, but it’s your voice behind every syllable, behind every pixel, and behind every backend function. It’s truly unique.

One thing we have learned here at Tripp Co. Creative; there’s no better way to build a relationship with customers than by being yourself. When your customers see how much you care about your own business and reputation, they’re receiving a very strong message about how you’ll care for their business and reputation. When actions speak louder than words, custom is the only way to go.