News
Welcome! Join us for client publication news and updates, plus explore our thoughts on publishing, marketing, and customer service, as well as new technologies and ideas to make your next project soar!
We Aren’t In Sales Anymore
I have to admit, I didn’t anticipate a career in sales, but here I am 16 years later still reaching out to people with our products and services. I have seen a lot of trends and changes occur in sales; some focusing on the latest technology, some focusing on smaller budgets, but the one that seems to be sticking around is the idea we aren’t really in sales anymore. We are in the business of building relationships. The Austin Business Journal recently published an article by Ken Cook speaking to the relationship-building part of sales.
In the article, Cook uses an example of what the relationship model looks like. “Going forward let’s elevate the focus on relationships. In these (weekly sales review) meetings let’s share with the group how you’re doing with your client relationships. Specifically, who are you working with? Tell us about the person. How strong are your relationships? What can be done to improve them? How strong is the trust with each client?” These are all great questions you can put into practice today.
Cook also offers some sound advice about why this shift is necessary. “Think about customers in terms of the relationship with them. Think about them as people, and deal with them as such. Bonds will form and trust will develop. In that environment, the opportunity for business grows.” This isn’t a simple task for everyone, me included. The bottom line is always at the forefront of a salesperson’s brain, and this relationship approach moves that dollar-driven focus aside, making room for relationships that reap even greater monetary rewards. Sure, it will take time to develop your relationship-building skills, but start today, practice it everyday, and prosper!
— Chellie Thompson, Cofounder, Monarch Media & Consulting, Inc.
Cover-worthy Association Milestones
If your association has a magazine, how do you choose what goes on the most-viewed piece of your media outreach–your cover? Oftentimes it’s determined by the culture of your organization, your membership, your leadership, and publisher. Some organizations put smiling member faces on the cover each issue. Some choose a concept cover. Many choose a mix, but how often do you celebrate and commemorate your organization’s milestones on the cover?
Joe Rominiecki explores associations’ cover decisions regarding membership in his recent article, “What Your Magazine Cover Says About Membership” for Associations Now. He writes, “Associations are built by and for members, which is why one association promised to put its 15,000th member on the cover of its magazine.” The magazines of the Health Care Compliance Association (HCCA) and its sister organization, the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics (SCCE), made a promise to propel membership numbers by featuring their 15,000th member on the cover. Adam Turteltaub, CCEP, CHC, vice president of membership development at SCCE/HCCA said, “What better way to celebrate the milestone than to focus on the individual who put us across the next line?”
Rominiecki says, “The trick for any association publisher is to find members with compelling stories—or to find the compelling stories in their members.” And it’s true. If you’re featuring a face on your cover, that face needs to have a powerful story. In non-milestone issues, Rominiecki says, “featured members tend to be thought leaders or innovators in the industry.” The author also compares associations to people-curators: “…the association still has a great power to identify interesting people who are doing important work or have compelling stories to tell and to shine a light on them for the rest of the community.”
In addition to membership, associations have industry milestones that can be celebrated and illustrated. By digging into the history of the organization, founders’ stories, industry timelines, and member communities, there may be overlooked milestones to feature and tie into the topics that are important to members today. After reading Rominiecki’s article, I am reminded to take a look forward and a look back to find powerful and relevant ways to help our clients feature their association’s milestones.
— Andrea Exter, Cofounder, Monarch Media & Consulting, Inc.
FlipBoard: Celebrating a Custom, Niche Experience
How do you get your news? Well, I like to read about business, lifestyle, performance art, photography, parenting, and politics (not always in that order!) Though I still receive and read the newspaper, I find joy in the custom experience that is FlipBoard. Celebrating five years and tremendous growth, I am not the only one. BGR.com calls it a content revolution. And it is. BGR’s article, “Inside a Content Revolution Five Years in the Making,” looks back with FlipBoard creators to see how far the idea has come. In the article, Founder Mike McCue says, “It was this notion of a social or personal magazine you could customize. We still believe, at our core, that great content can change the world. For us, it’s always been about finding the best content, even if it’s niche.”
And I think it’s a fabulous outlet for niche publications and their corresponding social content. You can now choose topics (34,000 topics to be exact) that RSS feeds will fill and filter from arts and culture, to entrepreneurship, to sports, to zoology. It’s exciting to think that pass-along readership has evolved to create more than 15 million FlipBoard collections of content or “magazines” according to BGR.
So, when writing and publishing niche content whether you’re a professional association, non-profit or small business, remember that your readers are not only your members, donors or subscribers, they are also discerning consumers with new and beautiful ways to select content — your content.
— Andrea Exter, Cofounder, Monarch Media & Consulting, Inc.
Little Celebrations Help Us Stay the Course
I’m learning a lot about public schools since my daughter started kindergarten. Little celebrations pepper the calendar keeping students motivated, like this week’s 100-Day Celebration. At first I thought it was a history thing; then I realized they were celebrating the first 100 days this school year. Each student was to prepare a project that reflected on their learning accomplishments thus far. It was an assessment, but also a confidence builder for them. My daughter’s project consisted of designing a picture using items grouped in tens. We selected stickers and carefully placed them on poster board in a playground motif. When my daughter was finished, we counted ten groups of ten, totaling 100 stickers. She presented her picture to her class on 100-Day, very proud of how far she had come since her first day of kindergarten. For me, it was a great way to see her progress and praise her efforts beyond the standard report card. (As a proud mom, I couldn’t help but illustrate this post with her project!)
So, why don’t we celebrate 100 days in the working world? The first 100 days of 2015 falls on Friday, April 10th. Let’s mark April 10th on our calendar as a day to celebrate our accomplishments during the first 100 days of 2015. Check the goals you set back in January. Take the day off for some self-renewal. The weather will hopefully be nice, so find a patio for lunch and let your coworkers know how much you appreciate them. Find a way to celebrate the first 100 days of 2015. Let this be a confidence boost for the next 100 days, the next deadline, the next issue of your publication, or the next project. Enjoy these little celebrations and use them as a motivator to stay the course this year.
— Chellie Thompson, Cofounder, Monarch Media & Consulting, Inc.
Building on Opportunities in 2015
I personally don’t make resolutions having long accepted the fact that by February those will be nothing more than a distant memory, but with a kindergartner, you have to be ready to teach and act on what they have learned in school. This New Year’s Eve our topic of conversation was watching the ball drop in Times Square and what it means to make a resolution.
I knew we wouldn’t make it to midnight so the Times Square festivities were recorded, and we celebrated the ball drop at 9 a.m. on New Year’s Day. The delay didn’t diminish the excitement one bit! And the beauty of having a DVR is we watched the ball drop at least three more times. Then it was on to resolutions. We took this opportunity to set goals not necessarily make resolutions, and we kept it to one goal each. My daughter, with a little assistance from me, decided it would be a good idea to clean up an activity before starting a new one. So far she has been doing pretty well with this goal. My goal was to not put my own miniscule tasks before playing with my child in the evenings. I am doing ok with this goal, and my daughter is quick to remind me of my goal — which helps! My husband decided his goal was to help us achieve our goals. He’s quick to keep us both on track!
At Monarch we set some goals as well, and I’ll happily share those with you! We are focused on maintaining the great client relationships we have built these past three years and building new ones. We appreciate each and every person and company we have had the pleasure of working with — even those who may no longer be our clients or those whose conversations didn’t result in a partnership. Every single opportunity is a learning experience, and for 2015, I hope you all have numerous opportunities to build on the relationships in your life and expand your experiences!
— Chellie Thompson, Cofounder, Monarch Media & Consulting, Inc.
A Bountiful Fall
It was a busy and bountiful fall! Monarch Media enjoyed working with four clients to produce four publications during October and November.
We are excited to announce The Modern Jewish Wedding’s 3rd annual magazine complete with six brand-new real weddings. From concept to print production, Monarch Media designed the 2014 edition around The Modern Jewish Wedding’s beautiful new logo and branding.
The Nov/Dec 2014 issue of Self Storage News covers the state association’s recent annual conference as well as the first of a two-part interview series on the future of the industry for independent owners. We also had the pleasure of designing and producing the Texas Self Storage Association’s annual conference materials, including an exhibitor prospectus, conference brochure, conference program and event signage.
On the marketing and sales side, we worked to get the November issue of the San Antonio Bar Association’s monthly publication, Subpoena, out to San Antonio attorneys with the highest grossing ad sales its seen. And looking forward, we are excited to add San Antonio Lawyer, the San Antonio Bar Association’s bimonthly magazine to our publication list for advertising sales and administration beginning with the Jan/Feb 2015 issue.
Lastly, utilizing Monarch Media’s complete publishing services, we produced the Austin Bar Association’s November issue of Austin Lawyer, covering access to justice through pro bono appellate work along with other local legal industry news.
It’s the buzz of advertisers calling, the process of design collaboration with clients, and the reaction from readers that makes our jobs so much fun!
Do You Have a Networking Strategy?
As Monarch celebrated our third anniversary, we took a day to reflect on how we got here and how we’re going to sustain for years to come. We got here through lots of hard work, patience, determination and networking. The first three have to do specifically with us, and the drive we have to keep Monarch moving forward. The last one, networking, involves other people. We did have a good network as we transitioned to business ownership, which helped answer numerous questions early on, but it also provided us with a host of potential client opportunities.
In a recent article written by Katie Bascuas, she explains that the worst networking mistake is “not asking for help when you need it.” The article goes on to explain as an individual needing to find work or a company looking to bolster your business development, you need a networking strategy. Our strategy very early on was to be actively involved in a professional network in our industry. For us, that meant serving in a leadership role on the board of the Women Communicators of Austin (WCA). We were visible at events, sponsored where it made sense and participated in speaking opportunities. We became a recognized company, and we received numerous business leads from our networking. As our client list has grown, we still rely heavily on networking. Did our strategy work? Absolutely. Do you need a strategy for your networking? Yes. In my opinion the best place to network is within a professional organization that supports your industry. You will garner incredible knowledge, make lasting friendships and be privy to vetted business development opportunities.
— Chellie Thompson, Cofounder, Monarch Media & Consulting, Inc.
Monarch Media Turns Three!
Today we are celebrating Monarch Media’s third birthday!! We are so excited and proud to have followed our hearts to this joyous place — the intersection of collaborative work with our incredible clients and family/community-centric living. It’s been both a challenging and wonderfully rewarding experience and we wouldn’t trade a single day! Thank you to our clients who have made each step one to build upon and each landing a shared celebration. It’s a pleasure to work with each of you everyday!
The journey continues as we climb towards four, striving to reach new heights in all that we do. Here’s to another great year!
A Refresh in the Heat of Summer
While it’s hot outside, we have been working inside on a long-awaited website project. As we near Monarch Media’s third birthday in September, we wanted to take some time to refresh our website. It’s been an exciting three years since we started our small business and there is plenty new to share—new clients, new projects, new ways in which we have been able to give back to our community.
We are delighted to have a newly invigorated website that reflects our exciting work. And it’s all possible because of our incredible clients! Thank you!
Clip Happy with Issuu Clip
Issuu, a top online publishing software company, released a new feature today that has us clipping with joy! Check out this short video to see the new clipping tool in action. Issuu Clip lets you share and comment on any part of a publication that inspires you. Readers can select and share any piece of content from within a publication, dramatically extending its reach as readers distribute the content they love across their individual social networks. This means audiences will grow as new readers discover publication clips on Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and more.
I tried it using The Modern Jewish Wedding’s 2013 e-magazine and I have to say it’s intuitive and fun–especially if you are a Pinterest addict! Happy clipping everyone!
— Andrea Exter, Cofounder, Monarch Media & Consulting, Inc.