Marketing Portfolio Case Histories

Work Samples and Marketing Campaign Results

The role of public relations and marketing communications is to affect change and move people toward a goal. Creative and professional marketing tells customers why they should use your products, educates users on how to get the most value from your services and builds loyalty for your brand leading to repeat sales. Below are a few campaign and project examples of how this can be accomplished. Contact Astra Communications to discuss your specific marketing challenges and how an appropriate communications program can help achieve your business objectives.

A Brief Portfolio News Release and PR Materials - Brochure and Collateral - Featured Articles and Edited White Papers - Newsletters - Web Content - Consumer
News Releases and PR Materials
Leveraging Relationships with Influentials Samples: MAAWG - RIO - Vision4Media Companies and trade associations often build mutually valuable relationships with industry experts and analysts. Quoting industry resources or issuing a joint release, when appropriate, adds credibility to an announcement. At the same time there are strategic considerations and it is important to obtain the necessary permissions and to work through any issues before the news release is distributed publicly.	Positioning Your Story in Backgrounders Sample: RIO The PR "Backgrounder" and PR "Fact Sheets" provide a quick study on your company and products for journalists, bloggers and industry analysts. Journalists often are writing on a tight deadline and need to quickly grasp the technology in your product or the rationale behind your marketing strategy. To be effective, PR materials must tell your story and incorporate your marketing messages in a compelling story that addresses reporters' immediate needs.
Launching Company’s New Strategy News release announcing new series of products based on broadcast systems developer’s new approach to multimedia content delivery.	Security Software Q&As Written to answer general and technical questions for journalists and analysts on company’s new approach to security software.
News Release Announcing HR Partnership Announcing the company was selected as exclusive provider to human resources service vendor.	Member Survey Samples: iBSI - ISMA One way to communicate a point is to survey customers or association members. For the iBSI, I developed the concept and the survey that become one of the first benchmarks of the Web services industry. For ISMA, the idea to survey engineers who had downloaded the organization's specifications was the brainstorm of the executive director. We worked with the ISMA Board to develop the questions and I wrote the survey emails. Both projects had an unusually high response rate.
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Feature Articles and Edited Papers
Article in Computer Magazine Wrote article that appeared under client’s byline.	Customer User Story Interviewed manager of TV station in Taiwan and wrote user profile for broadcast system client.
EDN Innovator of the Year Award Wrote 16-page entry form that resulted in nomination and winning the highest honors for the client in this prestigious award.	Technology Feature One of several articles placed and written to position a new technology platform. Article was bylined executives from two aligned companies.
Edited White Papers and Best Practices Samples: MAAWG Senders BCP Working with appropriate technical experts, I often provide writing or copy editing services to bring a paper to professional writing standards. In this sample, the paper content was created by a MAAWG technical committee, written and edited by the committee chair, then I supplied the copy editing to finalize the best practices.	DVD Supplementary Guide Sample pages of a counselors' training guide I helped Vision4Media create to augment its DVD on dealing with grief. The guide was written by a recognized expert in the hospice industry, then I edited and formatted the material.
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Brochures and Other Collateral
Concept Flyer for Utilities Air Monitoring Collateral to be used with other sales materials describing why utilities need an enterprisewide solution to regulated air monitoring. Developed concept, wrote all copy, supervised art design and production.	Concept for BI Trade Association Worked with the trade association's executive director to rewrite literature. The goal was to better define and explain the organization to potential members and the media.
	Software Product Brochure Introduces document capture aspect of a sophisticated high-end image processing platform for the enterprise environment. Wrote all copy.
Seminar Promotion Developed concept for brochure, wrote copy and supervised production. Organized and promoted the 8-city tour.	Hydrocarbon Industry Product Brochure Describes instrumentation and a new analytical technique for measuring quality and quantity of production. Wrote copy, supervised production.
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Newsletters
Online Newsletters Samples: Web-based Newsletter - Newsletter Email While HTML-coded newsletters can be pleasing, it's also possible to create a simple and effective e-newsletter without extensive Web design. The quarterly ISMA newsletter was developed as a single Web page with an a simple email sent to subscribers with links to specific articles. I have also developed graphical HTML newsletters using inexpensive Web services.	Print Customer Newsletters Samples: Spring 2001 - Fall 2001 Series of newsletters emphasizing customers talking to other customers. Developed content, researched and interviewed customers, wrote all copy and obtained approvals, supervised design and mailing.
Web Site Content
Consumer Healthcare Web Site Wrote Web content repositioning the client’s product for targeted female audience.	Trade Association Web Site Content Explains the premise behind a new nonprofit association and differentiates it from similar services.
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Consumer Marketing
Local Press for Retail Outlet We used the an award naming the local Curves facility the best in the U.S. to suggest the local newspaper write a story about the owner. The resulting article offered excellent exposure to potential customers.	Healthcare Product Insert The purpose of this fold-out packaging insert was to educate consumers on the need for continued use of the product and provide coupons as an incentive for future purchases.

A Few Case Histories
and Campaign Results

The PR Battle for an Emerging Standard

How public relations helped an emerging technology jump to the top 3 in analysts’ ratings.

Communicating Expertise with Effective Newsletter Development

How customers explained the value of the client’s services to other customers.

Winning Industry Analysts Over

How a trade organization less than a year old and the technology it promoted earned a place among the top trends of the coming year.

Using PR to Reposition a Company

Evolving with the times, a company used public relations to launch its move from hardware to software developer.

Using Feature Articles to Sell
Multimedia Management Internationally

How trade articles explained new business strategies and helped customers over come their doubts about evolving technology and new processes.

Introducing the First Web-Enabled Phone

It was 1997 and we introduced the first smart phone with Internet connectivity at CES. The result was publicity in major business magazines and newspapers, including Business Week and The New York Times.

Communicating Expertise through Events

Leveraging local resources to create a community conference on the often overlooked topic of grieving allowed the client's expertise to shine through, showcased their DVD on the subject and enhanced long-term relationships with other experts in the field. The payoff was in a exceptional story on the front page of the targeted health section of a major newspaper.

Using PR to Build Credibility for
New Scientific Techniques

Introducing and selling a new approach to a traditional measurement technique that opened new markets.