Built for government & utility districts
BlogNotes from the studio.
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What Is Community-Based Social Marketing?
Community-based social marketing (CBSM) is a method that uses community resources and partnerships to promote healthy behaviors. Community-based social marketing borrows from the success of face-to-face community organizing to build online engagement around shared issues and cau…
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Do Not Throw Trash in the Toilet: How To Get Communities To Listen
Public restrooms play an essential role in keeping communities clean and healthy. Yet too often, toilets are misused as trash cans. Cigarette butts, paper towels, candy wrappers, gum, feminine hygiene products, and even cat litter end up in toilets every day. This seemingly smal…
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Logo Design and Branding Services: Local Government
When people think about logo design and branding services, they often picture private companies or small businesses trying to attract new customers. But government agencies and public services benefit just as much—if not more—from a strong brand identity. Branding and logo desig…
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Goldstreet: Bridging Municipalities and Communities
Representatives of local municipalities know their decisions and budget allocations are always open for review and, as a result, scrutiny. But there’s a way to create strong relationships with the community that are positive and beneficial for progress — using creative agency se…
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10 Ways Local Government Can Improve Public Outreach Efforts
If you're part of a local government body, you already understand that staying connected with your community is essential to managing your organization effectively. Public outreach goes beyond issuing generic updates—it requires two-way communication where citizens can ask quest…
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Video Production
Video marketing is a critical component of every organization’s digital marketing strategy. According to eMarketer, 4x as many people would rather watch a video about a product or service than read about it. At Goldstreet Designs, we have the expertise to produce and distribute…
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Creating Videos on a Budget
Recent studies have shown that people are choosing videos as the way they prefer to receive information. YouTube is the second largest search engine on the Web, with over one billion daily users. According to Hubspot research in 2017, video content was the most memorable media t…
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6 Tips to Get the Most Out of Your Newsletter
“Newsletters are a quick way to touch base with your customers and provide them with tidbits of information that should make them want to go to your website, or blog, or meetings to learn more. It’s your way to tell them about things they should care about in their utility that…
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Maximize Your Community Event
In today´s technology driven world, hosting a community event offers a rare chance to connect with people on a truly personal level. One on one contact gives your utility a human face, helps to create good feelings among the people you serve, and can also make your message more…
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Is Your Brochure Copy Muddled Or On Message?
Brochures are a great opportunity to communicate with your customers in a more detailed manner than postcards or social media posts allow. But is your message on point or is it getting lost in translation? Following these five writing tips will help you create clear, concise cop…
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How Do You Know Your Social Media Campaigns are Working?
Your agency regularly posts in social media. You've even started boosting your posts or purchasing advertising to increase distribution of them to the people in the community you serve. Good for you! You've made big steps toward engaging with your community on Facebook, Twitter…
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Using Seasonal Outreach to Increase Behavior Change
It´s no accident that the all the big box stores start putting their seasonal items out months BEFORE you even start thinking about needing them. The utilities and local government agencies who are seeing the highest rates of behavior change are doing the exact same thing: targe…
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6 tips for Proofing Outreach Materials
You want to get your utility's message across as effectively as possible and want to look good and competent in the process (you are reading this blog article, right?). The following are some things to look for when proofing material before sending it off to the printer. It’s a…
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5 Reasons Your Outreach May Not Be Engaging Your Utility Customers
There are a variety of reasons a utility may not be providing public outreach to their customers. We hear it often, “I don’t have time, there are too many things to do”. “We don’t have a budget for outreach”. “I don’t know where to start, it’s not my specialty”. “I covered that…
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Integrated Marketing… Does Your Outreach Qualify?
You’ve Probably Heard the Buzzword, So Let’s See if Your Outreach Qualifies. It sounds simple, doesn’t it? All you have to do is make sure all your marketing and communication efforts are in sync, consistent and working together in harmony. Well, if it was that easy, I wouldn’t…
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Utilities + Social Media = 5 Things You Should Consider
Nearly half of the world's 7.3 billion inhabitants use the internet. 73% of those people are considered active social media users. In fact, by 2020, it is expected that 95% of your rate paying customers will have either grown up during the age of digital technology or be conside…
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Top 10 Mistakes We See in Outreach Materials
These days, with technology driving your customers to seek information that is quick, visually attractive, engaging, and to the point, it has never been more important to create effective outreach materials. Fortunately, there are a few things you can do to increase your chances…
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3 Target Audiences You Should Be Reaching…
…and Tips For Reaching Them! 1) Mobile Businesses Carpet cleaners, pressure washers and painters are among the top three mobile businesses known to be polluting local waters. A moving target, they can be hard to reach, but here are a few tips: • Increase the “Report a Spill” out…
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3 Tips to Increase Readership of Your CCR
With so much required language, it is difficult to get your customers to read your Water Quality Report (CCR), no matter how important the information is to know and understand. How do you overcome this challenge? Here are 3 tips to increase the readership of your Water Quality…
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Taking Behavior Change by Storm
At a time when the economy is stressed and budgets are strained, some municipalities are seeing an increase in their approval rates for budget requests and grant applications. They are also building trust and “buy-in” from their customers while also seeing a real change in behav…
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Finding the Best Time for Utility Outreach
When it comes to utility outreach, timing can make or break the success of a campaign. Whether you’re promoting assistance programs, seasonal conservation tips, or digital billing options, the question remains: When is the best time to share your message? Too often, utility comp…
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El Centro's Unique Approach to Kids Outreach
It is pretty obvious that an eighth grader and a first grader have much different needs when it comes to education, so why aren’t utilities making this distinction when producing kids outreach materials? Stormwater utilities across the country are including include kids in their…
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Why Kids Are So Important to Utilities and 5 Tips to Reach Them
When utilities think of communication and outreach, they typically think of their customer list. Those customers are the people that pay the bill monthly and are always adults. Therefore, it’s natural to create outreach targeted to adults and the current, paying customers you ha…
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Put Your Program to the Test! The Value of Market Research
Scenario: You just invested a ton of time and money into developing, what you think, a really great stormwater behavior change program. You took all the necessary steps during development, including thoroughly researching your target audience and setting measurable goals and obj…
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Understanding and Reaching the Millennials in Your Service Area
As a communicator and marketer for your utility, you likely hear the common phrases of target market, demographics etc. If you aren’t hearing and considering these terms, you should be. The only ‘thing’ your customers have in common, is that they are, ‘your customers’. Therefore…
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Lessening Stormwater System Impact with Education, Communication
The City of Monmouth (OR) may be small in terms of population (about 10,000) but it’s big in terms of trees. They line virtually every street, blanket every park and since 2009, the City’s five-member Tree Advisory Board and local volunteers have planted more than 200 on public…
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Finding Inspiration for Weekly Blog and Corporate Content
Adapted from “7 Places to Get Free, Personalized Creative Content (That You’re Totally Wasting)” by Jana Quinn, with permission from the marvelous team at Quality Logo Products. There comes a point in every creative content writer’s career where you find yourself staring at a fl…
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Building Two-Way Communication How one PUD Promotes Energy Efficiency
The Cowlitz Public Utility District No. 1 of Cowlitz County, WA felt it was time to communicate with the public regarding energy use in the home, how energy is being used and the amount of energy (and therefore money) customers might be wasting by not using energy more efficient…