Pantone Colour of the Year for 2019


When I received Pantone's email announcement of their Colour of the Year for 2019, I didn't rush to blog about it as I usually would. Mostly I thought, "Huh?" And ever since, I've been wondering if I'll have the opportunity to use it in any of the digital marketing I do.

Don't get me wrong, I love Pantone 16-1546 Living Coral. But it feels a bit feminine for my purposes - which are marketing-related, of course.


I decided to have a look at possible colour schemes using Living Coral...


I'm kind of liking that triad combo! What do you think? Will you be using Living Coral in your branding this year?

Click to Tweet this Article

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

When is a Discount a Gift?

Image
If you give someone a $25 giftcard to a shop where the lowest priced item is $50, is it a gift? What if a complete stranger gifts you 50% off the price of a conference ticket? Is that a gift? The headline said: Our Gift to You: A Special Discount for Generators Summit . When I followed the link in the email to get my gift, I was taken to an Eventbrite ticket purchase page. Currently I can get the early bird price. What a generous gift... not. Usually I would tweet or otherwise share information about such an interesting event, even if I won't attend. This particular event is actually getting a whole blog post. Be aware of the perceptions of people opening your emails or clicking on your links.   Using the word 'gift' in any marketing context is tricky because it mixes up social values with economic values. Just because others do it, doesn't mean it's right (for you). Click to Tweet this Article
Keep reading »

2 Reasons to Share your Newsletter Archive

Image
Phew, your newsletter is done and sent. But that shouldn't be the last anyone sees of it. With the online version of your newsletter you can have readers anytime - not just when it gets published and not just those it gets emailed to. #1. Use it as a Resource If your newsletter is informational and useful beyond today, it can become a valuable resource, sort of like a blog. Occasionally share a link to your archive as a post on your social media platforms. Add it to the Resource page on your website if you have one. Put a link to it in each newsletter issue - "Read past issues." Place a call to action and link to your archive in your email signature. Some newsletters just aren't as useful as a resource; perhaps you already publish the info on your blog or website, or it is time-sensitive. There's still a good reason to share your newsletter archive. #2. Use it as an Example The more clearly someone understands what they are signing up for, the...
Keep reading »

Home Office Holiday Party

Image
In preparation for our office party this year, I wrote a poem. Then I gathered together the things I would need to have a party with Romeo and Danielle. (The Temptations were for Romeo, the phone for Danielle, and the coffee for me.) Romeo, my cat, is used to hearing me talk out loud as I proofread and he was unusually excited about hearing the poem. Danielle, who lives several time zones away in Saskatchewan, also works alone (and helps me out lots) so I invited her to my office party by phone. It was a good move because she's a master at rhyming words. After much anticipation, I started to read the finished poem aloud to them. As you can see in the photos above, I had their full attention. Ode to a Midnight Blog Silent night, late at night, I've still got my blog to write. My laptop propped up on my bed, I'm hoping ideas will fill my head. Yawns escaping, eyelids drooping, Neck is stiff, my thoughts are looping. My brain is sore, I th...
Keep reading »

This is Why People Who Subscribe Don't Get Your Stuff

Image
You work hard to attract new subscribers who find value in what you're offering. Someone makes a decision to sign up to your mailing list expecting to receive that great value and... they don't hear a thing from you. I'm not talking about businesses who have sign up forms yet never send a thing - that's a different blog post (and hopefully that's not you). Delivering your precious content to your fans has always been a challenge - what with spam filters, corporate gateways, and then trying to stand out in the inbox. What you may not have realized is that Google has become society's censor, whether you use it yourself or not. Google decides what gmail users see in their inbox , and what gets (sometimes arbitrarily) moved to the promotions folder - out of sight, out of mind. Even if you want to receive newsletters from your clients, or get this week's sales at the mall, Google may decide you don't. This is interfering with: satisfying your subsc...
Keep reading »

Quick Tip - Avoid Hidden Format Problems

Image
When you're inserting content into your newsletter, website or blog, you're often copying it from other documents.  I suggest you always compose in Word (or similar) to take advantage of its spelling and grammar-checking functionality. Your formatting in Word may not be the same as your default formatting in these various applications.  While there are a raft of applications that make it easy now to do your own newsletter, website and blog, most of them are converting your content to html code in the background.  When you copy in text that is already formatted, you're possibly creating problems behind the scenes .  As well, you'll end up with differing fonts and sizes that all have to be corrected before you publish. You can avoid the potential for problems by stripping off all formatting before you paste into the application.  An easy way to do this is to use Notepad (or similar).  You simply open a blank notepad document, paste your con...
Keep reading »

Your 'Thank You for Signing Up' Page

Image
A redirect page is a webpage where someone ends up after filling in your subscription form. This is something you have control over and it's worth putting a little effort into. After all, someone has just said they trust you enough to sign up for your newsletter - it's a good time to dazzle them with more of your brilliance and give them some value right away . Here is a screenshot of Anita Kirkbride's redirect page. When someone subscribes to Twirp's newsletter, this is where they end up. Here's why this page is great: It clearly describes what the subscriber signed up for. There's a free giveaway, which was promised in the call to action. There's a link to get immediate value by going to Twirp's blog. Also those cute little Twirplings at the bottom of the screen jump up and down... which made me feel kind of happy to have subscribed. Is it time to take a fresh look at your own redirect page? What is the most important message you want t...
Keep reading »

Adding Audio to your Content - Part 1

Image
Natasha in her studio (guest post by Natasha Marchewka) ***  Click to listen in rather than read Have you considered adding audio to your blog or eNewsletter? As a voice actor, someone who uses and sells their voice for a living, showcasing my voice and having an archive of recorded blogs is an obvious choice for me. Adding audio to marketing adds to the multimedia dimension, offering readers more engagement. Lucky for me, Linda Daley of Daley Progress has embraced my audio blogs as she is able to listen to it weekly while completing other tasks! But adding the element of an audio file isn't limited to voice actors. Including a voice in your content, be it a blog, newsletter, website, or social media is just smart.  When you want your client or customer to have the perception of a personal connection with you, offering more of yourself, like a photo, audio greeting, or even video is another step closer to making your way into their hearts and minds. Who might...
Keep reading »

Here's How to Get Inspired

Image
I often say, “Write when you’re inspired... and take the time to get inspired.” This week I’m taking my own medicine because inspiration has been lacking. Thinking about getting inspired, with my newsletter deadline looming, led me to create this list of things that I sometimes do when I'm stumped. I can even do most of them without leaving my desk! Read other people’s articles. I may learn something new that I can share. I may agree or disagree with the author. Either way, I've got something to write about. Call a friend or client. You may want to prepare a couple of questions in advance, such as “What puzzles you most about what I do?” or “What’s the biggest benefit you get from working with us?” Or you might just wing it. Think about processes. Write step-by-step instructions that are simple and easy to follow. Use screenshots or images if it makes sense. Review old blog posts and articles. I often find ideas that I can expand on or tangents I haven’t e...
Keep reading »

Back to the Grind Content Ideas

Image
As you get back to your routine after summer’s break, remember there are lots of ways to make the return to school and work useful to your small business content marketing plans. Back to School Stress and excitement go hand in hand for many families as they prepare for the start of a new school year. You have many opportunities to give every family member value in the form of organization tips, tools, worksheets, checklists, shopping lists, how-to’s, recipes and much more. Plus, think ahead and start planning your marketing messaging for all of those upcoming school related activities, like sporting events, exam schedules and school breaks. Teachers are an important segment of this market; don’t forget them! Back to the Grind Summer vacation is over and businesses are gearing up for that last big push before year end. Business people are looking for productivity and project management techniques and tools to help them meet their annual goals. And it’s not just kids goin...
Keep reading »

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

OK, so you might need 34 letters to say "I feel good!" in some circumstances. But I can't ever imagine needing 340 words to say "expect glitches". A client of mine received this email below from an online service provider. No, you won't want to read it anymore than she did. Want to know the short version? Scroll down. Salesforce.com is committed to providing a highly available service to our customers. We are committed to continued investments to increase the overall uptime of our service, to deliver optimal value to our customers. With that, we are excited to announce a major advancement in this area for our major releases, effective with our Spring '12 release. W hat is the change? We are happy to inform you that we are improving our major release upgrade process. This improvement means that your organization will be generally available during our major release upgrade windows. Note: The term "Generally Available" means that we are...
Keep reading »