Stevens 470 News

May Coffee Hour at the Studio

Thu, 17 May 2012 09:58:00 -0400

On Tuesday we presented our monthly Coffee Hour on the use of video to enhance your company's online presence. While everyone enjoyed coffee and a light breakfast, Bob and Justin reviewed different video concepts businesses can use to capture attention and tell a story. They also discussed how to use video to promote products or activities to engage customers, and how those same videos can be used to increase your social media presence and search engine optimization. They also covered some of the technical aspects of online video and highlighted the pros and cons of using YouTube and Vimeo.

Bob Burch and Justin Friend of Stevens 470, co-presenters of this month's presentation: Using Online Video.

From left to right, Tony Peterson of Atlantic Fasteners, Lindsey Hadwin, Tim Grader of The Sandri Companies, Dee Beltis and Jennifer Nolasco of Nora's Restaurant and Corey Moquin of Pioneer Valley Productions. (Not pictured) Joe Paul of Pioneer Valley Productions.

New Website for Tekoa Country Club & Banquet

Wed, 02 May 2012 10:01:00 -0400

Tekoa Country Club & Banquet

Tekoa Country Club and Banquet is located at the foothills of the Berkshire Mountains and provides beautiful views of the Westfield River. Their golf course, designed by Donald Ross, consists of 18 holes suited to golfers of all abilities. Tekoa's banquet facilities are perfect for any occasion from beautiful weddings to luncheons and corporate events. Tekoa prides itself on making your event an occasion to remember.

Stevens 470 worked with Tekoa to create a website highlighting their beautiful golf, wedding and banquet facilities, as well as their commitment to customer service. Through the site you can learn about upcoming events, golf and membership rates, and view photo galleries of the course and facilities.

Responsive Design

Tekoa's website is built with a responsive framework that automatically adjusts the website to the screen it is presented on, so when viewed on a desktop, smart phone or a tablet, it will always look its best. Stevens 470 builds all of our websites within this responsive framework. Content Management System The website also supports the latest web standards and is build within a powerful Content Management System (CMS) that allows Tekoa to update their own content with a simple backend editor similar to a word processing program.

Content Management System

The website also supports the latest web standards and is built within a powerful Content Management System (CMS) that allows Tekoa to update their own content with a simple backend editor similar to a word processing program.

visit tekoacc.com >

New Website for One Write Company

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 09:49:00 -0400

One Write Company

One Write provides church offering envelopes, forms, and other giving materials to more than 10,000 churches and organizations around the world and prides themselves in providing churches with products designed specifically for their congregation. One Write's mission is to support the act of giving by helping people give more consistently and more easily. Their church products are offered in a wide range of styles, quantities, and prices and can be custom printed with a church's logo and artwork.

Stevens 470 worked with One Write to create a website highlighting their wide range of church products and printing services. The site takes a user through the steps of ordering custom designed offering envelope books by allowing them to choose everything from cover design to numbering style. One Write's site also features a dynamic stock order form that allows churches to easily choose from a variety of options to order the products they need.

Responsive Design

The new One Write website is built with a responsive framework that automatically adjusts the website to the screen it is presented on, so viewed on a desktop, smart phone or a tablet, it will always look its best. Stevens 470 builds all of our websites within this responsive framework.

Content Management System

The website supports the latest web standards and is build within a powerful Content Management System (CMS) that allows One Write to update their own content with a simple backend editor similar to a word processing program.

www.onewriteco.com >

March Coffee Hour at the studio

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 11:14:00 -0400

From left to right: Dave Felty of 5 Star Building Corp., Michelle Crosby of PeoplesBank, Bob Burch of Stevens 470, Moe Belliveau of Optimum Health, Jennifer Gagnon of Girard Heating and Air Conditioning, Amy L'Esperance of The Stanley Park of Westfield, Cinda Parnagian of Tangles, Jennifer Shafii of TigerPress, Jay Fahy of Collins Pipe and supply Co. Inc. Not shown: Tina Stevens of Stevens 470, Nina Pepek of Lamar Advertising, Jerry Gibson of TigerPress, Amanda Walker and Dan Ware of The 401k Coach and Kay Canavino of Kay Canavino Photography.

Tuesday, March 13, we presented our March Coffee Hour on Social Media and had a great turn out! While everyone enjoyed coffee and a light breakfast, Bob and Tina co-presented on how to maximize your use of Social Media. Tina began with a marketing overview for developing your social media goals, audience and messaging. Bob presented several examples to highlight some best practices when using Facebook. Bob also went over many of the new Facebook Timeline features you might consider using to promote your business through social media. Our guests shared new ideas and insights on helping to increase their online presence.

Stevens 470 Updates The Arbors Kids Brand and Website

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 09:49:00 -0500

The Arbors Kids

The Arbors Kids offers child care services, summer camps, and before and after school programs. They are a family owned business that truly cares about kids. They recently opened an additional child care center in East Longmeadow. Stevens 470 worked with them to develop advertising and marketing materials. The project also included a brand update, with new collateral and information sheets for every Arbors Kids location.

Stevens 470 also designed and built a new website that reflects the wide range of child care services from The Arbors Kids. The new website is easy to navigate, and is built on a powerful Content Management System (CMS) that allows The Arbors Kids to edit and create their own content, as well as update and manage pages. The website also features responsive web design so the website will change in appearance to fit the viewer's screen size (computer, tablet or smart phone) for maximum readability.

To learn more about The Arbors Kids, visit arborskids.com >

February Coffee Hour at the studio

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 15:39:00 -0500

On Tuesday, February 14, we were feelin' the love at our Valentine's Day Coffee Hour! While everyone enjoyed coffee and a light breakfast, Bob and Justin co-presented this month's topic "The Growing Role of Mobile Marketing." Bob reviewed the latest statistics on surging social media use on mobile devices, and discussed some of the successful mobile apps that are available. Justin reviewed mobile commerce (m-commerce) and responsive website design, which allows a website to display appropriately across multiple devices - a monitor, tablet or smart phone.

L to R - Bob Burch of Stevens 470, Cinda Parnagian of Tangles Hair, Justin Friend of Stevens 470, Dave Felty of 5 Star Building Corp., Tina Stevens of Stevens 470, Maureen Belliveau of Optimum Health, Sandy Sorel of Hogan Communications and Miguel Colon of Sunshine Village. Not pictured: Chris Sbrega of Hampton Flooring Center, Inc.

Cinda Parnagian and Justin Friend

Should My Business Have a Mobile App?

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 09:49:00 -0500

Mobile Apps

A mobile app is a software program designed to work on a mobile device, such as a tablet or a smart phone. Some apps give you access to the data on a website. For example, the Facebook app lets you easily interact with Facebook on your smart phone with access to the same Facebook data, but in a different format. Other mobile apps can be stand alone programs that function separately from the internet, such as the camera on your phone.

Research shows that more people have mobile devices and are using them to access the internet and get information through mobile web browsers and/or mobile apps. So does your business need a mobile app - here are a few things to consider.

1. Who is your audience?

Consider your audience and the type of mobile devices they use - iPhone, Android or Blackberry? If they are people on the go, consider what type of company information they will want access to, and how they would like to get it.

2. What is your goal?

Many mobile apps are used for marketing purposes, but that may not be the best way to use your resources. Consider what you want to provide your customers and how will it benefit them. Successful apps are usually the ones that people use everyday, like the Facebook app, to accomplish repeated tasks not done by the regular functions of a mobile device.

3. What about budget and resources?

There are many ways to develop apps - from using custom app providers to companies that provide templates and toolkits. Consider how much you can spend on a mobile app and what you hope to get for your investment. When mobile devices get updated your app may need updating as well. So research how much that may cost. If your app involves social media determine who in your company will be in charge of monitoring it.

4. How will you market your app?

Even if you have the most useful mobile app in the world, people won't use it unless they know about it. Keep in mind that it can take over a month to have your app listed in the Apple and/or Android App Stores. Simply putting your app in them, among the millions of other apps, won't be enough to help people find it. Develop a plan to let your customers know about your app and what it does.

New Website for Mason Wright

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 09:49:00 -0500

Mason Wright

Mason Wright is senior community that combines the comfort and security of a small town neighborhood with the conveniences and attractions of the Springfield area. Mason Wright also has a proud long-standing commitment to excellence in affordable assisted and independent living.

Stevens 470 worked with Mason Wright to create a website to highlight their Assisted Living, Assisted Memory Care and Independent Living services. The website also houses the Mason Wright Foundation, a donor supported foundation with more than 100 years of service. The Foundation's mission is to provide quality housing and daily living services to support the dignity and independence of seniors without regard for their ability to pay.

Content Management System

The website supports the latest web standards and is build within a powerful Content Management System (CMS) that allows Mason Wright to update their own content with a simple backend editor similar to a word processing program.

Responsive Design

The new Mason Wright website is built with a responsive framework that automatically adjusts the website to the screen it is presented on, so viewed on a desktop, smart phone or a tablet, it will always look its best. Stevens 470 now builds all of our websites within the responsive framework.

www.masonwright.org >

January Coffee Hour at the studio

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 13:31:00 -0500

This Tuesday we had a full house at our Coffee Hour! Once everyone had a chance to get coffee and some breakfast, Tina began this month's presentation "New Year's Resolutions for Your Website." Tina reviewed a variety of website topics including: ensuring your website accurately reflects your business, using social media to drive consumers to your website, making your website mobile friendly, and understanding search engine optimization (SEO) and how to use it to your advantage. Throughout the presentation Bob shared real-life examples to help clarify each point. Our guests asked great questions and added their own perspectives on managing their websites and online marketing.

Clockwise from left: Marlene Desmarais of Columbia Manufacturing Inc., Bob Burch of Stevens 470, Tina Stevens of Stevens 470, Don Bozek of Strathmore Artist Papers, Chip Costello of the Irish Cultural Center at Elms College, Ron Cote of The Creative Group, Prob Reshamwala of Mina's Wine and Spirits, Patti Conroy of Westfield BID, Dave Felty of 5 Star Building Corp., and Moe Belliveau of Optimum Health Therapeutic Massage.

Clockwise from left: Don Bozek of Strathmore Artist Papers, Chip Costello of the Irish Cultural Center at Elms College, Ron Cote of The Creative Group, Gail Yarmesky of the City of Westfield, Sandy Sorel of Hogan Communications, Prob Reshamwala of Mina's Wine and Spirits and Patti Conroy of Westfield BID.

(L to R) Prob Reshamwala of Mina's Wine and Spirits, Patti Conroy of Westfield BID, Dave Felty of 5 Star Building Corp., Moe Belliveau of Optimum Health Therapeutic Massage. Not pictured: Nicole Hill of National Association of Power Engineers.

December Coffee Hour at the studio

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 14:46:00 -0500

Tuesday, December 13th, we hosted our holiday Coffee Hour here at the studio. The presentation was “Is your marketing ready for a new year?” Tina reviewed how to use marketing to reach your business objectives as well as key steps in the process of generating a multichannel plan. We enjoyed a light breakfast and shared our experiences using various media tactics, as well as ideas for using social media to get your message out.

Coffee hour attendees (L to R) Elaine Formica of Ride Noho, Bob Burch of Stevens 470, Rick Doiron of Westfield Contracting and Property Services, Sandy Sorel of Hogan Communications and Tina Stevens of Stevens 470.

Sandy Sorel and Dave Felty.

Is your marketing ready for a new year?

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 09:49:00 -0500

Use Marketing to Reach Your Business Objectives

If you know us here at Stevens 470, you also know what big fans we are of multichannel marketing. So with the new year just around the corner we want to remind you to get your marketing plans in order.

Given that we all have limits on our time and resources, deciding among all the available marketing channels can be a challenge. Online advertising and social media continue to evolve and offline channels are changing as well. You can start planning by defining your marketing objectives and clarifying the most important goals for the coming year. Here are several core questions to ask when doing a marketing review:

what are my major business objective for 2012?
how is my brand doing in today's economy?
what changes in the marketplace are affecting my product/service?
is my current audience the same?
are there new audiences for my product/service?
what message will ring true and show the benefits of my product/service?
what media channels will best reach my audience?

Make Your Marketing Plan Multichannel

Developing your plan will include defining your objectives, analyzing the marketplace, finding an audience, creating a strategy and effectively implementing that strategy. Using every available marketing channel will help you reach your current clients and target audience. Take the time to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of each channel. Take advantage of every channel opportunity and be sure to have a presence in all the channels that your customers use.

Use Push and Pull Marketing Activities

When developing your strategy, include both push and pull marketing activities. Push marketing refers to pushing your message out to your target audience. You take an action that puts your message in front of them, for example you send a postcard, run a radio ad, or send out a broadcast email. Pull marketing activities are used to draw your target audience into your major marketing channels so you can have a larger dialogue with them. Social media is a powerful pull marketing activity that continues to grow.

Allocate Your Resources

With a plan in place you can allocate your resources to the projects of greatest priority. Having determined and visualized the end result, you can plan the steps needed to get there. Each marketing decision can be made within the framework of “does this marketing activity bring us closer to our business goal?"

I encourage you to start on your marketing plan today. It doesn't need to be a fancy document but it does require serious thought and evaluation. Take the time to gain clarity and purpose for the year ahead.

To learn more tips, come to our next Coffee Hour:
Is Your Marketing Ready for a New Year?
December 13, 2011 | 8:30 - 10:00am | Stevens 470
register today >

November Coffee Hour at the studio

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 13:52:00 -0500

From the left, Tina Stevens and Bob Burch of Stevens 470, Mary Beth Morris of Tighe & Bond, Dave Felty of Five Star Building Corp., Lisa Lococo of American Eagle Cycles Division of Berkshire Group and Susan Martin of Southworth.

On Tuesday, November 9th, we held our monthly Coffee Hour here at the studio. The presentation topic was “How to Improve Website Traffic.” During a light breakfast, Tina and Bob reviewed organic, paid and local search options and how to improve web traffic using pull marketing methods. We received great questions and had an open discussion about tracking your website with the use of analytics.

From the left, Dave Felty, Bob Burch, Susan Martin and Lisa Lococo.

Stevens 470 Creates “Say it with Print” for Hadley Printing

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 09:49:00 -0500

Hadley Printing is featured annually on the back cover of the BusinessWest Resource Guide. Stevens 470 created an ad to highlight the beauty, versatility and immediacy of printing. Just like sending flowers, saying it with print allows Hadley's customers to make a lasting impression with their printed materials.

Stevens 470 created the concept and design, hand-crafted the origami flowers from Hadley's printed samples, and art directed the photography by David Stansbury. The eye-catching ad has been well-received, and Hadley Printing now has a permanent bouquet for their office!

For over 100 years, Hadley Printing has been providing high quality printing and exceptionalservice throughout New England. Their commitment to quality, service and technology gives their customers a great print job every time.

5 Search Optimization Tips

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 10:49:00 -0400

stand out in the crowd

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is the process of analyzing and updating the content on your website so it ranks higher in a search engine listing. SEO has grown into a science that evolves and changes as rapidly as the search engines. With more websites being created all the time, a good SEO plan is needed to keep up with your competition. Here are a few things to consider when starting a new website or working to improve your current website's search engine ranking.

1. does your CMS incorporate SEO tools and functions into its architecture?

Content Management Systems are database driven systems that allow website owners to login and easily edit content on their website. Using a CMS is highly recommended so that you can easily manage your own website. When choosing a Content Management System it is important to pick a system that features SEO tools like inputs for meta information, options to allow or disallow search engine robots on selected pages, automatic creation of an XML sitemap file and a place to embed analytics tracking code.

2. write new and relevant content with SEO in mind

On the internet, relevant content is king. When writing content for your website use keywords in your headings and paragraph text that people would use in a search. Stay away from general keywords like shoe store, where you'll be competing with large international companies like Zappos.com and instead be more specific. For example, Athletic Shoes in Westfield, Massachusetts, adds the location and the store specialty to help set it apart.

3. redirect pages from your old site to your new one

If you're building a new website make sure that your web developer creates redirects. That way, when search engine robots check pages from your old site (that no longer exist), they will be redirected to corresponding pages on your new site. Redirects aren't just for search engine robots either, they are important for redirecting people that may have bookmarked pages from your old site.

4. XML sitemap submission

An XML sitemap is a file containing a list pages from your website located on your website server. This file and can be submitted to search engines and tells search engine robots what pages to crawl looking for updates.

5. setup and look at your site analytics

Choose a web developer that sets up an analytics account for your website. This will help to track visits, page views and search terms that people are using to find your website. Google Analytics is free and easy to set up.

To learn more tips, come to our next Coffee Hour:
How to Improve Website Traffic
November 8, 2011 | 8:30 - 10:00am | Stevens 470
register today >

Online Marketing for the Western Mass Business Expo!

Wed, 14 Sep 2011 10:49:00 -0400

The Western Mass Business Expo is the region's new B2B trade show and will feature hundreds of exhibitors, free educational seminars, business resources, and must-attend networking events – all in one place for one day!

Stevens 470 is managing the show's online marketing including their website, broadcast emails, and social media. Stevens 470 developed and designed the Western Mass Business Expo website to showcase and provide information about the event. The website is built on a powerful Content Management System (CMS) that allows Expo organizers to make updates through an easy-to-use text editor. The website also features a banner ad tool, that allows Expo organizers to see stats on how many views and clicks the show sponsors receive from their banner ads on the website.

Stevens 470 is proud to be a Silver Sponsor of the event and will be presenting a seminar titled, "Driving Traffic: Using Your Website to Drive Sales", at 9:15 am. learn more about the seminar >

The Western Mass Business Expo takes place on October 18, 2011 and starts with a 7:30am Associated Chambers of Commerce of Greater Springfield Breakfast and ends with an After Hours Social from 4:00 - 6:00pm. We hope to see you at the show, please come by our booth #321 to say hello.