array(9) { [0]=> object(WP_Post)#2767 (24) { ["ID"]=> int(871) ["post_author"]=> string(1) "2" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2017-07-06 00:00:00" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2017-07-06 06:00:00" ["post_content"]=> string(2630) "Last week, Denver’s digital marketing professionals convened at the largest Digital Summit Denver yet. The summit included big names including keynote speakers Seth Godin and Morgan Spurlock, along with digital marketing leaders from Facebook, Cisco, National Geographic, Fidelity Investments, SalesForce, The Economist, and more. Here is an overview of the insights shared at the conference and how you can incorporate them into your marketing strategy. Email: Email continues to deliver high return on investment for B2B and B2C marketers, but to maintain an engaged audience, brands must be committed to relevancy in their email campaigns. In addition, focus on optimizing your email for deliverability. Here are some tips to lower the chances your email ends up in the junk folder:
● Use images and text in your campaigns (do not use an all image design) ● Use 500+ characters ● Keep your email size below 100 kb ● Don’t use bitly or other shortened links
Search & Social Media: One of the biggest conference takeaways for your SEO strategy for the rest of 2017 and 2018 is ensuring your website is mobile friendly. If it isn’t, when Google launches its expected update that will penalize non-mobile friendly websites, your traffic will decrease quickly. Another trend the speakers emphasized was the success they are seeing with integrating search marketing and social media. This is because while search is great at capturing demand, social media is great at creating that demand. Ensure you are placing ads where your audience is likely to see them. For example, if your audience includes women in their 40s to 50s who like crafts, Snapchat probably doesn’t make sense, but Pinterest does. Analytics: Data and analytics are crucial to generating higher returns at a lower cost, and your first-party data is your competitive advantage. In your content, use analytics to assess topics, headlines and images for to better understand what your audience finds interesting and to enhance user engagement. In assessing which channels and campaigns are most successful for lead generation and customer conversion, expand your tracking from first- or last-touch attribution to multi-touch attribution, which will give you a more comprehensive picture of which combined marketing and sales activities are generating customers. For user experience, assess your user flow, time on site, pages per visit and bounce rate to learn where users are engaging with your brand and where they are dropping off." ["post_title"]=> string(54) "Digital Marketing Takeaways From Digital Summit Denver" ["post_excerpt"]=> string(0) "" ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["ping_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(54) "digital-marketing-takeaways-from-digital-summit-denver" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(0) "" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2023-12-19 19:40:27" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2023-12-20 02:40:27" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> int(0) ["guid"]=> string(82) "https://canopyadvisory.com/digital-marketing-takeaways-from-digital-summit-denver/" ["menu_order"]=> int(0) ["post_type"]=> string(4) "post" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(1) "0" ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } [1]=> object(WP_Post)#2769 (24) { ["ID"]=> int(870) ["post_author"]=> string(1) "2" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2017-06-29 00:00:00" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2017-06-29 06:00:00" ["post_content"]=> string(3183) "Amidst the many obstacles of successfully launching a company, talent management consistently ranks as the single greatest challenge for founders. In fact, attrition in startups in their first year exceeds 25%, according to the Kauffman Foundation 2016 Index of Startup Activity. Founders wear so many hats that they don’t have adequate time or resources to seek out, recruit, vet, train, and onboard talent effectively. One solution for startups and growth phase businesses alike is to take advantage of high level, on-demand talent. Fractional executives are leaders who become a part-time addition to the C-suite or executive leadership of a company. They are often big firm trained, high-level freelancers that work only a percentage of full-time, but can bring the same credibility and skills to an organization as a comparable full-time hire. Here are the top 3 benefits of hiring a fractional executive: 1. Scalability with company growth A big challenge for entrepreneurs has often been identifying the appropriate time to bring in talent to scale systems. In legacy employment models, a full-time hire had negative profitability implications since the talent was on-boarded prior to the associated increase in revenues. With fractional executives, however, companies and founders ramp the fractional executive at the same time as the organizational growth. In addition, efficiencies are gained as the fractional executive typically needs less training based on their higher experience level and they have big brand experience which helps the organization plan more effectively for the ramp. 2. Managing Margins Startups are hungry for top talent but often lack the revenue base to support having costly full-time executives. Hiring a fractional executive allows startups to attract top talent without having to pay a full-time price tag. Marc Prisant, former Executive Vice President & CFO of the Steadman Philippon Research Institute in Vail, Colorado shares, “The advantage of a fractional executive is that companies get 100% of their expertise and brain power, without incurring 100% of their true cost. This preserves margins and the bottom line.” With access to big brand talent on a fractional basis, companies tap into the brain trust of talent that otherwise would be far more expensive if hired on a full-time basis. 3. Focus Founders and executives of startup and growth phase organizations must maintain focus on their customers and their mission. Although talent management is a critical component of growth, with turnover among startups higher than in other stage businesses, managing the process of finding and bringing on new employees typically comes at the expense of focus on product or service delivery. Fractional executives grow with an organization, freeing up a founder’s time for its customers. Canopy consultant and Co-Founder of the American Transplant Foundation, Heidi Heltzel, says that this model, “provides leadership and a steadying hand to ensure continuity in operations, thereby allowing staff to focus on their individual responsibilities to keep company goals and timelines on target.”" ["post_title"]=> string(69) "What Are “Fractional Executives” And How Do They Benefit Startups" ["post_excerpt"]=> string(0) "" ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["ping_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(63) "what-are-fractional-executives-and-how-do-they-benefit-startups" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(0) "" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2024-01-24 16:14:39" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2024-01-24 23:14:39" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> int(0) ["guid"]=> string(91) "https://canopyadvisory.com/what-are-fractional-executives-and-how-do-they-benefit-startups/" ["menu_order"]=> int(0) ["post_type"]=> string(4) "post" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(1) "0" ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } [2]=> object(WP_Post)#2770 (24) { ["ID"]=> int(869) ["post_author"]=> string(1) "2" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2017-06-27 00:00:00" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2017-06-27 06:00:00" ["post_content"]=> string(5250) "Time for a Pop-Quiz. If you asked a handful your company’s employees to explain the story of your company’s brand and its vision for the future- would the answers be consistent? Does your culture embody the values that your marketing and sales efforts communicate to your customers? When employees talk about their jobs, do they feel they are part of a common purpose? Often companies spend lots of money, time, and effort on external brand and marketing, but then don’t “walk the talk.” Their employees either don’t understand the company brand and what they sell, or the company culture for employees doesn’t match the promises it makes to its customers. Their internal brand is non-existent. To add to this conundrum, companies spend equally as much time, money, and effort to improve “culture,” including employee benefits and perks that seem cool and attractive for new talent. And, while these perks probably are “cool and attractive,” they will not make your employees understand, feel and embody the company’s vision, mission and values. In “Selling the Brand Inside”, Collin Mitchell explains that internal marketing is crucially important:“It’s the best way to help employees make a powerful emotional connection to the products and services you sell. Without that connection employees are likely to undermine the expectations you set by your advertising..., We’ve found that when people care about and believe in the brand, they’re motivated to work harder and their loyalty to the company increases. Employees are unified and inspired by a common sense of purpose and identity.”Those words couldn’t ring more true. Your company’s culture is reflective of how well your employees understand your brand narrative. Your employees are the face of your brand, and representatives of your company’s culture. How they interact, think, operate and work together should be in line with what you promise to your customers. If they don’t know and believe in what you offer, how can your customers? When your Internal and External Brand work in synch- GOOD things Happen. The opportunity for building internal brand and culture is huge for any size company. The ROI of a strong internal culture is best centered around hiring the right people and retaining the great ones. Companies that are viewed as “destinations” for talent with good culture are the ones that thrive. Not only do their employees “walk the talk” but also are the best salespeople for recruiting other well-qualified team members that embody the values of the company. In today’s age of platforms like GlassDoor, an employee can read real reviews on the culture of the organization he/she is considering. This can have a profound effect on a company’s ability to find and retain good talent. Time to Walk the Talk. This opportunity to strengthen internal brand can’t be ignored. If you feel that your company could benefit from a stronger internal brand (and culture), here are 5 tips that can get you started today:
Canopy Advisory Group, a network of independent business consultants, today announced that is has hired Chaun Powell at its new CEO.
Powell will join Griffen O'Shaughnessy, who co-founded the Denver-based firm with Brooke Borgen. O'Shaughnessy — who was also named a DBJ Outstanding Women in Business finalist in 2016— heads Canopy's Denver operations. Canopy also has an office in Seattle.
"With the success of Seattle and continued growth in Denver, there was also need to grow our leadership team," O'Shaughnessy said. "Chaun is an outstanding business leader with nearly two decades of experience in health-care startups and Fortune 25 companies. He is filled with ideas to help Canopy realize its next-stage client partnerships, and I couldn’t be more thrilled for the Canopy brand, our clients, and our consultants on this addition."
Canopy Advisory Group uses a firm-like model to bring on consultants with entrepreneurial and legal experience and allow them to choose their clients. Powell's appointment comes as Canopy looks to expand in the Pacific Northwest.
The firm focuses on marketing and PR, strategy and finance, nonprofits and law.
Canopy is looking to capitalize on a trend that sees more people seeking work-life balance with more flexibility. Powell will head up expansion efforts, which include scaling to other cities by 2020.
Powell also works as graduate level adjunct professor of entrepreneurship at the University of Denver's Daniels College of Business. He formerly was national director of orthopaedics for Cardinal Health and vice president of U.S. sales, business development and marketing for Emerge Medical.
“The next chapter of Canopy will certainly build off of the successes celebrated to date, which wouldn’t have been possible without considerable dedication and contributions from each advisor, client and the reception we’ve received in both Denver and Seattle,” said Powell, CEO, Canopy Advisory Group. “Though the mission and culture of our organization remain, Canopy 2.0 will be growth-oriented, focused on business and nonprofit communities in key cities.”
-- Caitlin Hendee is digital producer and social engagement manager for the Denver Business Journal and covers education. Email: chendee@bizjournals.com. Phone: 303-803-9226." ["post_title"]=> string(68) "Denver's Canopy Advisory Group hires new CEO amid expansion plans" ["post_excerpt"]=> string(0) "" ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["ping_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(73) "denvers-%e2%80%8bcanopy-advisory-group-hires-new-ceo-amid-expansion-plans" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(0) "" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2023-12-19 20:02:53" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2023-12-20 03:02:53" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> int(0) ["guid"]=> string(101) "https://canopyadvisory.com/denvers-%e2%80%8bcanopy-advisory-group-hires-new-ceo-amid-expansion-plans/" ["menu_order"]=> int(0) ["post_type"]=> string(4) "post" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(1) "0" ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } [5]=> object(WP_Post)#2773 (24) { ["ID"]=> int(866) ["post_author"]=> string(1) "2" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2017-03-16 00:00:00" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2017-03-16 06:00:00" ["post_content"]=> string(3111) "For small business owners, having a robust online presence is critical for success. However, developing a website, managing email campaigns, and reporting on success may seem overwhelming. In addition to your standard options, such as MailChimp, Wordpress and Square Space, here are a few less well known, free or inexpensive tools to help you with your website, social media, email, and reporting that don’t require a technical expert to use. Website: Sumo: Sumo offers a full suite of tools to help you grow your traffic on your website. From social sharing tools, to forms and interstitials (pop-ups and welcome mats), to heatmaps (to track where users are focusing on your website), SumoMe will help you engage more users and understand how they are interacting with your website. Social Media: Hootsuite: Hootsuite is a social media management and publishing tool that integrates with your social media accounts in one simple dashboard. Hootsuite offers several plans, depending on your business needs, which include various levels of features and reporting. Facebook Power Editor: With its wealth of user data, Facebook advertising is valuable for both B2C and B2B companies. Power Editor enables you to set up, organize, and update your campaigns easily and effectively. This guide from Jon Loomer provides a comprehensive tutorial on how to use Power Editor. Email: HubSpot: HubSpot is much more than an email tool. It offers a free CRM and has various levels of features to fit your business needs. These include marketing automation, email, landing page creation, forms, and reporting. Design: Canva: Canva offers people who are not professional graphic designers the ability to create attractive social media images, email headers, blog graphics, and more. Many of the layouts and images are free, and others are as cheap as $1. SEO: Moz: Moz has both paid and free tools. Two of the free tools -- Open Site Explorer and the Keyword Explorer — are key for SEO. Open Site Explorer analyzes your site for back links, broken links, and tells you which of your pages rank the highest in Google search. Keyword Explorer helps you identify the best keywords to target with your website, blog, and digital advertising. Reporting: Google Analytics: Google Analytics is Google’s free reporting tool for websites. You can track growth in traffic, gather insights on your users, discover where users are dropping off your site, and report on the success of your digital campaigns. ### Lauren McNitt is an independent strategy and marketing consultant who joined the Canopy team in February 2017." ["post_title"]=> string(59) "Essential Digital Marketing Tools for Small Business Owners" ["post_excerpt"]=> string(0) "" ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["ping_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(59) "essential-digital-marketing-tools-for-small-business-owners" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(0) "" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2023-12-19 19:42:43" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2023-12-20 02:42:43" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> int(0) ["guid"]=> string(87) "https://canopyadvisory.com/essential-digital-marketing-tools-for-small-business-owners/" ["menu_order"]=> int(0) ["post_type"]=> string(4) "post" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(1) "0" ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } [6]=> object(WP_Post)#2774 (24) { ["ID"]=> int(817) ["post_author"]=> string(1) "7" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2017-03-06 00:00:00" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2017-03-06 07:00:00" ["post_content"]=> string(7768) "
“Not only has she changed the organization, she has changed my life - now I only have to spend one hour a week meeting with her instead of the treadmill that I had been on," Abrams said.Are highlancers only women? Only moms? Of course not. Highlancing is a choice, not a demographic, that certainly provides margin for raising your own children, but also, in our experience, caring for an elderly or ill parent, nurturing relationships, pursuing hobbies and interests that make you a more complete person (and even a more passionate professional), and any number of deficient areas. This community of highlancers is a meaningful addition to the workforce who predominantly still believe this country needs to continue making changes to achieve gender equality in the workplace. But, this is not a generation that sits idly waiting for change. Highlancers are already carving their own paths to success and not looking back, a path that doesn’t end in the corner office." ["post_title"]=> string(77) "The rise of the "highlancer": Working moms eschew the C-suite for flexibility" ["post_excerpt"]=> string(0) "" ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["ping_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(74) "the-rise-of-the-highlancer-working-moms-eschew-the-c-suite-for-flexibility" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(0) "" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2023-12-19 18:44:20" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2023-12-20 01:44:20" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> int(0) ["guid"]=> string(102) "https://canopyadvisory.com/the-rise-of-the-highlancer-working-moms-eschew-the-c-suite-for-flexibility/" ["menu_order"]=> int(0) ["post_type"]=> string(4) "post" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(1) "0" ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } [8]=> object(WP_Post)#2776 (24) { ["ID"]=> int(814) ["post_author"]=> string(1) "7" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2016-11-07 00:00:00" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2016-11-07 07:00:00" ["post_content"]=> string(5396) "I realized over 10 years ago that I have a calling that cannot be ignored — a calling to create opportunities for the next generation of leaders in under-represented communities. After years as a corporate communications executive, I saw an opportunity for my employer to be a more socially responsible company, generate positive news stories, and support public policy goals by creating partnerships with leaders of under-represented communities. After all, these growing communities are the users, customers and supporters of the companies that serve them. But the notion of working closely with them was unfamiliar to leadership primarily because they are not represented in decision-making roles. As an executive at a Fortune 500 company, I created a new role focused on developing a network of relationships and partnerships with under-represented communities. The idea was supported and after several years, there were tangible outcomes for the public policy, human resources, and diversity teams and noted benefit to company value. There was also significant progress in the community as a result of our collective work together. At last, I was able to fulfill my personal calling while contributing to the good of the company. This calling eventually led me to Facebook. The “Director of Community Engagement” position didn’t exist when I met the leader of public policy at Facebook almost six years ago. I convinced him to create this role, pointing out that Facebook needed to have a Community Engagement strategy and a network of strategic relationships with diverse communities and their leaders. Thankfully, he agreed and we embarked on the journey together. Initially, community leaders were surprised that Facebook was interested in working together with them so early on in the company’s life. But they quickly learned that Mark and Sheryl’s commitment was sincere and we solidified an open dialogue and collaborative relationships with many leaders and organizations. I spent five years creating a solid network of relationships and partnerships with leaders of various diverse communities and served as the company liaison. This network resulted in close relationships with the country’s most reputable under-represented leaders from the African American, Asian American, Disabled, Hispanic, LGBT, and minority small business communities throughout the United States. We created opportunities together and continually educated key leaders about important Facebook business and policy issues. The outcomes were measurable and rewarding for everyone. And once again, I was affirmed by the value and power of establishing strategic and diverse community-centered partnerships. After building a solid foundation of Community Engagement at Facebook, I was inspired to follow my calling again by expanding my reach as an independent consultant. I wanted to multiply my success at Facebook through working with others in the technology sector and different industries. Reactions to my decision to leave Facebook, after five years as a senior Latina in the company, ranged from dropped jaws to looks of confusion. But when I met with Sheryl Sandberg to thank her, she supportively focused on the contributions I made to the company and the exciting opportunities in my future given my experience. Sheryl encouraged me to share my story to inspire other women. Telling my elderly parents was tough, as their generation did not believe in leaving “a good job.” Taking risks in Hispanic culture isn’t typically encouraged. Taking risks was only for the privileged. I believe this cautious approach to life is based on centuries of working hard and being grateful for having a job and food on the table. My heart broke when my mom said, “Oh, I wish you weren’t leaving Facebook, they have been so good to you.” Ultimately, my parents were fully affirming, knowing that I am a natural-born risk-taker. Telling the network of diverse leaders that I was leaving was the most difficult part of my transition. I felt like I was abandoning them. So many thoughts raced through my head in those conversations. Was I letting down the under-represented community? Was I letting down the next generation of Latinas? Was I letting down Mark and Sheryl? A sense of guilt loomed over my decision, though there was always something exciting about what opportunities awaited me. Now, on the other side of it all, I couldn’t be happier with taking this leap. I find solace knowing that my intention as an independent consultant is to take the success at Facebook and my previous experiences to others interested in developing a broader strategy for success. I also feel as passionate about conversations around corporate and community engagement. Let’s talk about about how to effectively work together and make it happen! 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