Mainebiz

V O L . X X V I I N O. X X I I O C T O B E R 4 , 2 0 2 1 8 B U S I N E S S M A I N E B U S I N E S S M A I N E B U S I N E S S N E W S F RO M A RO U N D T H E S TAT E N O T E W O R T H Y S T A T E W I D E The Maine Department of Health and Human Services was awarded $6.1 million to improve the health of Maine mothers and children. The funding was awarded through the U.S. Health Resources & Services Administration' Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program, and will sup- port efforts to promote childhood development, reduce child abuse and enhance child and maternal health. The department also received a grant of $929,502 from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to support development of a new Medicaid program providing commu- nity-based, mobile crisis interventions for Medicaid beneficiaries. U.S. Sen. Angus King announced that the Federal Communications Commission will distribute $1.6 A S K AC E A n s w e r e d b y K a r l a D o r e m u s - T r a n f i e l d o f K D T B u s i n e s s S t r a t e g i e s The Association for Consulting Expertise (ACE) is a non-profit association of independent consultants who value "Success through Collaboration." The public is welcome to attend its regular meetings to share best practices and engage with industry experts. For more information go to www.consultexpertise.com. Q: How can digital marketing work for my B2B company? ACE advises: Digital marketing strategies work for ALL busi- nesses. The trick in B2B marketing is defining your business objectives. From there, you can design data-based campaigns that will influence the important decision makers: the user, technical expert, and buyer. As data analyst Joy-El Talbot of Iris Data Solutions points out, data is everywhere — if you know what you are looking for. As with traditional marketing, data is the background to all campaigns. It influences how we target the messaging, the metrics of the campaign, and the campaign's impact on the business. Effective digital marketing is a team effort. The product expert and marketing strategist will figure out marketing objec- tives and design campaigns with consistent messaging across platforms. The data analyst collects and interprets data to develop visualizations to clarify complex business problems and present rec- ommendations to executive management. Using an iterative pro- cess, the team will adjust the marketing campaign to generate new data for anal- ysis. The new data informs the next adjustments until your objectives are met digital content can be adjusted rap- idly, allowing teams to fine tune messaging that influences decision makers. Iteration, speed and flexibility are the hallmarks of digital marketing, and are extremely cost effective. If you understand where you are, have a general idea of where you are going, and have the discipline to check in with every iteration, you will succeed. Negative insights and ideas that flop are as useful as ones that connect instantly. Digital marketing is so much more cost effective than traditional marketing. A team can afford to take chances, analyze results and then adjust swiftly as needed. Karla Doremus-Tranfield, of KDT Business Strategies, is a marketing, sales, management and project management consultant based in Camden. Karla can be reached at karla@kdtstrategies.com. Joy-El can be reached at joy-el@irisdatasolutions.com For more on this topic, see "How to Implement a Successful Digital Marketing Campaign" at consultexpertise.com/blog/11107346 To see how a marketing strategist and data analyst work together through the life-cycle of a campaign, check out her new series with co-presenter Joy-El Talbot hosted by the Manufacturer's Association of Maine. fb.me/e/1irWF2okV @ million to 23 Maine schools and school districts representing the first wave of funding from the Emergency Connectivity Fund created by the American Rescue Plan. $10M gift propels USM music center e University of Southern Maine announced a $10 million gift to build a new Portland home for its School of Music, from philanthropist Suzi Osher. USM said it will use the largest-ever gift in USM Foundation history to move the school's academic and performance music programs from its Gorham cam- pus to a prominent location at the heart of its Portland campus. e Center for the Arts could break ground by spring 2023. e School of Music will be called the Dr. Alfred and D. Suzi Osher School of Music at the University of Southern Maine. Earlier this year, the USM Foundation received a $5 mil- lion donation from the Cumberland Foreside-based legacy foundation of the late songwriter and music producer Bob Crewe, who co-wrote many chart-top- ping songs for the Four Seasons in the 1960s including "Walk Like a Man" and "Rag Doll." He died seven years ago in Scarborough. Corey Hascall, vice president of the USM Foundation, said the total project cost of the Center for the Arts is expected to be $38 mil- lion to $42 million. N O T E W O R T H Y S O U T H E R N Atlantic Federal Credit Union in South Portland announced the creation of Digital marketing is so much more cost effective than traditional marketing. A team can afford to take chances, analyze results and then adjust swiftly as needed. S O U T H E R N

• Cover